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GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN     MEYER  ELSASSER 

DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 

JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.  SARTORI 

to  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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Christian  history 


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€^c  'Batotom  lecture*!,  1886 


INSTITUTES 


OF 


Christian  History 

&u  Kntrotmctton 

TO 

HISTORIC    READING  AND   STUDY 


By  A.   CLEVELAND    COXE 

BISHOP    OF   WESTERN    NEW  YORK 


I  do  but  prompt  the  age  to  quit  their  clogs.  —  Milton 


CHICAGO 

A.    C.    McCLURG  AND    COMPANY 
1887 

85080 


Copyright, 
By  A.  Cleveland  Coxe, 

A.D.     1887. 


K, 


3 ; 


TO 

SIBYL    AUGUSTA, 

Wife  of   Henry   Porter   Baldwin, 

Sometime   Governor  of  the  State   of  Michigan,  and  subsequently  a 
Senator  of  the    United  States. 

Madam, 

It  was  your  happy  privilege  to  associate  yourself 
with  your  distinguished  husband  in  the  endowment  of  the 
Baldwin  Lectures,  following  the  example  of  illustrious 
women  in  the  Mother  Church  and  furnishing  an  example 
which  I  trust  will  be  imitated  by  Christian  wome?i  in 
America  in  time  to  come.  I  count  it  a  great  honour  to  have 
received  the  first  appointment  as  Baldwin  Lecturer  under 
,the  judicious  provisions  of  the  foundation.  Sitjfer  me  to 
inscribe  these  first-fruits  of  the  project  to  you,  as  a  tribute 
to  yourself  and  to  my  beloved  friend,  " the  Governor"  as 
his  fellow  citizens  still  delight  to  call  him,  even  now  when 
he  has  withdrawn  himself  from  public  life. 

The  far-seeing  and  gifted  prelate  who  presides  over  the 
diocese  of  Michigan  has  ettdeared  himself  to  the  Church  at 
large  by  the  establishment  of  the  Hobart  Guild  at  the 
seat  of  the  State  University,  for  the  promotio7i  of  Christian 
work  in  that  seat  of  learning.  And  greatly  is  he  to  be  con- 
gratulated upon  the  sympathy  and  co-operation  with  which 
you  and  Governor  Baldwin  have  so  promptly  and  so  ejfi- 


JV  DEDICA  TION. 

ciently  sustained  his  effort.  Without  lay  helpers  what  can 
an  Ainerican  bishop  do?  And  where  innumerable  works 
for  developing  and  sustaining  Christianity  in  the  Republic 
ought  to  be  set  on  foot  vigorously  and  without  delay,  how 
good  it  is  that  there  are  not  wanting  some  to  lend  the  elo- 
quence of  their  practical  beneficence  to  the  appeals  of  their 
fatliers  in  God ! 

May  you  and  your  husband,  even  in  this  life,  enjoy  great 
recompense  in  seeing  the  rich  results  which  are  sure  to  spring 
from  your  good  works.  In  the  better  life  to  come,  what 
blessed  promises  of  God's  Word  assure  you,  through  the 
Redeemer's  merits,  of  rewards  unspeakable  and  full  of 
glory  / 

Let  me  remain,  dear  madam, 

Your  faithful  and  grateful  friend, 


LEA  COTE, 
Rhinebeck-on-Hudson, 

September,  1887. 


A.  CLEVELAND  COXE, 

Bishop  of  Western  New  York. 


T 


PREFACE. 


HE  foundation  of  the  "  Hobart  Guild,"  and 
therewith  of  the  "Baldwin  Lectures," 
in  the  University  of  Michigan,  has  directed  the 
attention  of  the  Church  to  a  new  and  wise  policy 
with  reference  to  our  State  schools  and  colleges. 
The  instrument  which  fully  expounds  this  move- 
Xj'  ment  will  be  found  in  another  page  of  this  book.1 
We  owe  these  foundations  to  the  enlightened  wis- 
dom and  foresight  of  the  Right  Reverend  prelate, 
M  who,  with  such  great  advantage  to  the  Church  at 
jrf  large,  now  presides  over  the  Diocese  of  Michigan. 
But  he  would  hardly  forgive  me  should  I  neglect 
to  add,  that  in  the  munificence  of  Governor  Bald- 
win and  his  accomplished  wife  he  has  found  that 
sort  of  encouragement  and  help  without  which 
the  ablest  and  most  zealous  bishop  is  impotent  to 
effect  what  his  heart  and  head  may  prompt  him 
to  propose  as  due  alike  to  the  Republic  and  to 
the  Church  of  Christ. 

1  See  "  Deed  of  Trust,"  p.  299. 


VI  PREFACE. 

This  book  would  have  been  more  promptly 
issued  from  the  press,  had  not  many  important 
practical  questions  demanded  prudent  delays  in  a 
publication  designed  to  be  the  first  of  a  series. 
Such  a  series  must  be  uniform  in  size  and  appear- 
ance; and  what  should  be  the  form  and  cost? 
The  choice  of  a  publisher  to  whom,  probably, 
many  future  volumes  must  be  intrusted  in  the 
progress  of  the  successive  annual  courses,  and 
many  subordinate  considerations,  were  also  to  be 
decided.  It  was  our  deliberate  conclusion,  that 
a  judicious  medium  between  cost  and  cheapness 
must  be  accepted  to  secure  the  widest  possible 
circulation  for  the  series;  and  we  trust  the  "  make- 
up "  of  this  book  will  be  regarded  as  justifying 
a  conclusion  of  great  practical  importance.  A 
Western  University,  it  was  also  thought,  should 
not  look  eastward  for  a  publishing  house,  while 
the  great  book  business  and  admirable  publish- 
ing facilities  of  Chicago  invited  us  to  the  great 
midland  metropolis. 

Those  who  listened  to  the  Lectures  last  autumn 
will  find  a  rearrangement  of  some  of  the  lectures, 
and  some  transpositions  of  material.  This  grows 
out  of  the  fact,  that,  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
course,  the  more  important  matters  were  grouped, 
less  logically,  with  reference  to  the  evenings  of  the 
week  most  free  from  other  work  in  the  University, 


PREFACE.  vii 

and  hence  most  likely  to  secure  the  larger  audi- 
ences. I  have  also  taken  the  liberty,  even  at  the 
sacrifice  of  material  which  seemed  on  the  whole 
less  important,  to  enlarge  upon  some  points  which 
I  was  forced  to  slight  in  oral  lecturing.  In  this 
I  was  partly  guided  by  kind  inquiries  and  sugges- 
tions of  friends  who  attended  the  entire  course.  I 
must  be  allowed  to  express  my  sense  of  obligation 
to  the  President  and  Professors  of  the  University, 
who  afforded  me  so  much  encouragement,  and  by 
whose  influence,  no  doubt,  I  was  able  to  secure, 
for  so  many  evenings,  one  of  the  largest,  and, 
including  the  youth  whom  I  considered  so  inter- 
esting a  class  in  themselves,  one  of  the  most  intel- 
ligent and  inspiring  auditories,  which  it  was  ever 
my  happiness  to  address. 

A.  C.    C. 

LEA  COTE, 
Rhinebeck-on-Hudson, 

September  10,  1887. 


CONTENTS. 


10. 

1 1. 


LECTURE   I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

PAGE 

i.   Truth 9 

2.  Humanity 9 

3.  History  and  its  Study 10 

4.  The  Use  of  Lectures 12 

5.  The  Heritage  of  the  Ages 13 

6.  Christian  History 14 

7.  The  Pivot 15 

8.  Empirical  History 16 

9.  Conventional  Ideas 17 

An  Underestimated  Epoch 18 

The  Ruts  of  Habit •        .19 

12.  Another  Example 21 

13.  Tokens  of  a  New  Era 22 

14.  A  Brilliant  Work  that  just  misses  a  Prize       ...  24 

15.  Scientific  History 25 

16.  The  Mother  of  Theology 25 

17.  Institutes 26 

18.  Truth,  Old  and  New 28 

19.  Catholicity 29 

20.  A  Comparison 31 

21.  Bacon  and  his  Idols     ........  31 

22.  Dates  of  Anchorage 33 

23.  The  Great  Epochs 34 

24.  A  Practical  Plan 35 

25.  The  Survey 37 

26.  A  Practical  Use  of  Historic  Science  38 


X  CONTENTS. 

LECTURE   II. 

THE  APOSTOLIC    FATHERS   AND   NEXT   AGES. 

1.  Antioch 40 

2.  A  Contrast 41 

3.  An  Inquiry .  42 

4.  The  Portraiture  of  Antioch 42 

5.  The  Populace .  45 

6.  The  Jewish  Element        .......  47 

7.  The  Church  in  Antioch 48 

8.  The  Exceptional  Apostolate 49 

9.  Apostolic  Institutions          .......  50 

10.  Apostolic  Fathers.  —  Ignatius         .          ....  52 

11.  Justin  Martyr 53 

12.  The  Persecutions     . 55 

13.  Polycarp      .                           55 

14.  Primitive  Schools.  —  Alexandria 57 

15.  Many  Doctors.  —  Athanasius 58 

16.  The  Punic  School.  —  Tertullian  and  Cyprian          .         .  59 

17.  Arnobius  and  Lactantius     .......  61 

18.  Maxims  of  Lactantius      . 62 

19.  Harmony  of  Theologians    .                  62 

20.  The  Roman  Diocese 63 

21.  Irenaeus,  —  his  Place  in  the  West      .....  64 

22.  Roman  Receptivity 66 

23.  The  Nascent  Patriarchate 67 

24.  Hippolytus 69 

25.  Caius  and  Novatian 70 

26.  The  Gallicans 71 

27.  Chronic  Persecutions 71 

28.  Growth  of  the  Church 73 

29.  Conversion  of  the  Empire -74 

30.  Caesars  conquered  by  Martyrs 75 


LECTURE   III. 

THE   SYNODICAL   PERIOD. 

1.  The  Conversion  of  Constantine 77 

2.  Reserve  and  Moderation 78 


CONTENTS.  XI 

3.  The  Celibate 78 

4.  Other  Immediate  Results       ......  79 

5.  Disadvantages 82 

6.  Lasting  Results 83 

7.  Primitive  Councils S3 

8.  A  Nursing  Father 85 

9.  The  Temporal  Bishopric 86 

10.  A  General  Council 87 

11.  Nicaea .88 

12.  The  Opening 89 

13.  Significant  Facts 91 

14.  Results  of  the  Council 92 

15.  The  Paschal  Letters 93 

16.  The  Patriarchates 95 

17.  The  Great  Councils 96 

18.  The  Second  Council 97 

19.  The  Council  of  Ephesus 98 

20.  The  Fourth  Council 99 

21.  Chalcedon 100 

22.  Eutyches 102 

23.  Leo,  Patriarch  of  Old  Rome 102 

24.  Immutable  Catholicity 104 

25.  Two  Supplementary  Councils 105 

26.  Ratifications 106 

27.  The  Final  Judgment 107 

28.  Who  are  Catholics 108 


LECTURE   IV. 

THE   CREATION   OF   A   "WESTERN   EMPIRE. 

The  Breaking  up  of  Old  Rome no 

in 
.     112 

113 
.     114 

115 
.     116 

116 
.     117 

119 


2.  The  Goths,  Vandals,  and  Huns 

3.  Retrospect  .... 

4.  Minor  Councils 

5.  Irene 

6.  A  Counter  Council 

7.  The  Rule  of  Faith     . 

8.  The  Maxim  of  Vincent  . 

9.  The  Council  of  Frankfort 
10.  Alcuin 


Xll 


CONTENTS. 


n. 
12. 

*3- 

14. 

IS- 

16. 

17- 
18. 
19. 

20. 
21. 
22. 

23- 
24. 

25- 

26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 

3°- 


Universities,  and  their  Origin 119 

The  Caroline  Books 121 

The  Degeneracy  of  the  East 123 

Mohammed 124 

Successes  of  Mohammed 125 

Isnik  and  Dan 126 

Frankfort  once  more 127 

The  Blessed  Results 128 

Charlemagne 129 

Christmas  Day,  A.  D.  Soo 130 

What  it  meant 131 

Widely  Different  Effects 132 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire 133 

Insulation  of  England 134 

Distinctions T35 

Formation  of  the  Paparchy 136 

Conditions  Precedent 138 

My  Position !39 

Nicholas  and  the  Decretals 14° 

An  Illustration 143 


LECTURE   V. 

THE   MIDDLE   AGES. 


1 .  Dark  Ages  .... 

2.  Maitland's  Elucidation  . 

3.  A  Glance  at  the  East 

4.  The  Decretals  in  Operation  . 

5.  How  it  looked  in  English  Eyes 

6.  The  Latin  Churches 

7.  Gallicanism         .... 

8.  St.  Bernard     .... 

9.  The  Patristic  Period 
10.   The  Scholastics 

n.   Relations  with  Modern  Thought 

12.  The  Crusades 

13.  Barbarism  .... 

14.  Expiry  of  the  Dark  Ages 

15.  The  Cinque-Cento 


M5 
146 
146 
148 
ISI 
151 
152 
154 
156 
157 
153 
159 
161 
162 
164 


CONTENTS.  xiil 

1 6.  The  Medici 166 

17.  Gothic  Architecture 167 

18.  The  New  Christian  Architecture 169 

19.  Navigation 170 

20.  Printing 11 

21.  Great  Movements 172 

22..  The  Fall  of  Constantinople 174 

23.  Light  out  of  Darkness 175 


LECTURE   VI. 

THE   CHURCH   OF  OUR   FOREFATHERS. 

1.  Identity  and  Continuity 177 

2.  Origin  of  the  Church  in  Britain 178 

3.  Periods  ...         .......  179 

4.  The  Primitive  Period         .......  179 

5.  Groans  of  the  Britons .  180 

6.  Conversion  of  the  English 181 

7.  The  Early  English 182 

8.  Consequences     .........  183 

9.  Relations  to  the  Apostolic  See 183 

10.  A  Discovery 1S4 

11.  The  Other  Side  of  the  Case 185 

12.  A  Conference .  186 

13.  And  Another 1S6 

14.  Iona  and  its  Missions 1S8 

15.  Counsels  of  Unity 189 

16.  The  Mission  of  Theodore 190 

17.  Perilous  Innovations      . 191 

18.  Compromises 192 

19.  What   its  First  Archbishop  had  made  of  the  Anglican 

Church     .........  193 

20.  The  Venerable  Bede 194 

21.  First  English  Missions 194 

22.  The  Later  Period        .                 195 

23.  Alfred,  the  Head  of  our  Race 196 

24.  Taking  our  Bearings 197 

25.  The  Anglo-Norman  Period 19S 

26.  The  New  Episcopics  ab  Extra 199 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

27.  The  Foreign  Archbishops 200 

28.  The  Great  Lanfranc  ........  201 

29.  Old  Landmarks 201 

30.  An  Anglican  Primate 202 

31.  Cypriote  Autonomy 204 

32.  Anglican  Liberties  asserted 205 

33.  The  Great  Anselm 206 

34.  Intrusion  of  Legates 207 

35.  Where  we  stand 209 


LECTURE   VII. 

THE   ELEMENTS   OF   RESTORATION. 

1.  The  Transition  yet  Incomplete 211 

2.  The  Plantagenets    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  212 

3.  The  Submission 214 

4.  Two  Forces 215 

5.  Three  Classes  involved      . 216 

6.  Innocent  III.           . 217 

7.  The  Ebb  of  the  Normans 218 

8.  Archbishop  Langton 219 

9.  England  a  Fief  of  Rome    .......  221 

10.  Magna  Charta         ........  222 

11.  Henry  the  Third 222 

12.  Two  Edwards          ........  224 

13.  The  Third  Edward 225 

14.  Spiritual  Progress 227 

15.  Oxford  Men 229 

16.  Greathead 230 

17.  Wiclif 231 

18.  The  English  Language  .......  231 

16.   The  Popes  of  Avignon      .......  232 

20.  Wiclif's  Antecedents      .......  233 

21.  The  Good  Parliament 234 

22.  The  First  Citation 235 

23.  The  Second  Citation          .......  235 

24.  Lambeth 236 

25.  The  Friars 237 

26.  Wiclif's  Death  and  Character 239 


CONTENTS.  XV 

27.  An  Estimate  of  Wiclif's  Work 241 

28.  Mistakes 24* 

29.  The  Good  Things 243 

30.  A  Period  of  Delays 244 

31.  Our  Great  Benefactors 245 

32.  The  Epoch  of  Wolsey 246 

33.  Restored  Rights 24§ 

34.  Who  did  this  ? 249 

35.  Another  Step 25* 

36.  How  it  looked  in  France 251 

37.  The  Sequel 252 

38.  The  Bloody  Queen 253 

39.  The  Martyrs 254 


LECTURE   VIII. 

A   CATHOLIC   VIEW   OF   CHRISTENDOM. 


The  Accession  of  Elizabeth 256 

The  Marian  Schism 256 

The  Restored  Autonomy 258 

4.    The  Articles 259 

Their  Catholic  Core 261 

6.  The  Formation  of  the  Trentine  Church    ....  261 

7.  Retrospect 264 

8.  The  Mistake  of  Gerson 265 

School  Grudges 267 

Pisa 268 

Sigismund  visits  England 269 

12.  The  English  Embassy  to  Constance  ....  270 

13.  Huss  as  a  Reformer 270 

14.  Constance 27I 

15.  The  Martyrs  of  Constance 272 

16.  The  Infamy  of  Constance 273 

17.  One  Vote  and  the  Consequences 274 

18.  The  Council  of  Basle 27S 

Two  Points  set  Right 276 

Political  Protestantism 27° 

Reflections 278 


9- 

TO. 
II. 


19 
20 
21 

22.   Recent  Reaction 


2S1 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

23.  The  Contrast 282 

24.  The  Fall  of  the  Papal  Throne 284 

25.  Survey  of  Christendom 285 

26.  Nicene  Constitutions  Imperishable 286 

27.  Practical  Unities 288 

28.  The  Parable  of  Patmos 289 

29.  Perils  of  the  Republic 291 

30.  The  Constructive  Forces  of  the  American  Church  .        .  293 

31.  An  Appeal  to  Youth 295 

32.  Conclusion 296 


General  Note.  —  Deed  of  Trust          ....        299 
Miscellaneous  Notes 303 


INSTITUTES 


CHRISTIAN    HISTORY. 


LECTURE   I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

i.   TRUTH. 

TRUTH,  like  her  divine  Author,  is  despised 
and  rejected  of  men.  Bleeding  between  male- 
factors, it  sheds  out  of  its  great  heart  streams  of 
mercy  for  mankind.  It  often  seems  wounded  be- 
yond all  hope  of  resurrection;  but,  as  one  has 
happily  said,  "  Not  always  shall  Christ  hang  be- 
tween two  thieves ;  there  shall  yet  be  a  resurrec- 
tion for  crucified  Truth." 

2.   HUMANITY. 

In  a  day  like  ours,  when  millions  whom  Chris- 
tianity has  lifted  out  of  Paganism,  and  blessed  at 
least  with  civilization  and  mental  enlightenment, 
recognize  no  obligations  to  the  source  of  human 
welfare,  it  is  ignoble  indeed  to  belong  to  a  herd 
of  the  ungrateful  and  unbelieving.      Yet,  while  we 


IO  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

come  out  from  among  them  and  separate  ourselves 
from  their  corrupt  society,  let  us  reflect,  as  our 
Master  has  taught  us,  that  "  they  know  not  what 
they  do."  Let  us  treat  humanity,  even  in  its  most 
offensive  forms  of  degradation,  with  veneration 
and  with  tenderness.  Christ  has  bought  it  with 
His  blood,  and  clothed  its  ulcers  with  the  imperial 
purple  of  His  cross.  How  dear  mankind  should  be 
to  those  who  glory  in  that  sign  !  In  a  materialized 
generation,  let  us  rebuke  with  no  scornful  words, 
but  by  a  pure  example  and  by  practical  love,  those 
who  persecute  what  we  adore,  — "  shooting  out 
their  arrows,  even  bitter  words."  Let  us  bear  our 
testimony  to  the  eternal  verities  which  must  soon 
vindicate  themselves.  While,  all  around  us,  the 
people  of  the  epoch  live  to  eat  and  drink,  and, 
above  all,  to  be  amused,  —  to  trifle  and  chase  but- 
terflies,—  to  quarrel  about  sordid  things  and  dis- 
quiet themselves  with  low  and  transient  interests  of 
the  earth,  —  let  us  live  like  sons  of  God  and  heirs 
of  immortality.  Let  us  assert  the  lofty  mission  of 
witnesses  for  truth ;  let  us  tenderly  expostulate 
with  the  multitudes  who  are  rebels  to  the  dictates 
of  experience,  and  blind  alike  to  the  lessons  of 
history  and  the  sunlight  of  revelation. 

3.    HISTORY   AND   ITS    STUDY. 

If  history  be  "philosophy  teaching  by  example," 
who  does  not  see  that  it  is  the  noblest  study  to 
which  we  can  devote  ourselves?  It  is  the  study 
of  humanity,  illustrated  by  innumerable  specimens, 
and  enriched   by  the  lives   and  teachings  of  the 


INTRO D  UC  TOR  Y.  1 1 

masters  of  human  thought  in  all  ages.  Let  us  be- 
ware, however,  of  mistaking  for  history  the  fables 
which  often  claim  the  title.  Let  us  feel  the  vital 
importance  of  discovering  historic  truth.  Let  us 
reflect  that  in  every  investigation  we  have  been 
furnished  with  a  guide  to  the  real  and  the  un- 
feigned in  the  only  perfect  history,  —  that  of  which 
it  is  written,  "  Thy  word  is  truth."  I  hesitate  not 
to  say,  that,  in  the  search  of  historic  truth,  he  who 
begins  not  with  the  inspired  narratives  has  no  edu- 
cation that  prepares  him  for  his  task.  It  is  the 
blessed  prerogative  of  faith  in  God  to  gather  from 
His  word  the  great  secret  of  history,  as  something 
directed  by  Providence,  always  at  unity  with  itself, 
proceeding  from  one  Author  and  tending  to  one 
result.  He  who  stupidly  deals  with  events  as  if 
they  were  a  random  product  of  undirected  human 
caprices  and  of  men's  undisciplined  instincts,  may 
be  an  annalist,  a  chronologist,  a  collector  of  details, 
but  he  cannot  be,  in  the  highest  sense,  a  genuine 
historian.  The  lofty  intelligence,  akin  to  military 
genius,  which  marshals,  combines,  analyzes,  and 
co-ordinates  facts,  showing  their  mutual  relations, 
and  their  bearings  on  human  progress  and  on  the 
revealed  plans  of  the  Most  High,  is  essential  to  the 
philosophic  historian.  Not  less  is  something  of 
the  same  kind  essential  to  the  student  of  history,  — 
to  us,  young  gentlemen,  who  are  mere  recipients, 
economizing  the  lives  and  labours  of  the  world's 
benefactors,  in  order  that  we  in  turn  may  not  be 
wholly  wanting  in  our  life-work  and  in  our  ap- 
pointed place  among  men. 


12  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

4.    THE   USE   OF  LECTURES. 

He  who  outlines  truth  in  the  form  of  popular 
lectures  has,  indeed,  the  distasteful  prospect  of  pro- 
ducing only  momentary  impressions.  In  spite  of 
this,  my  effort  shall  find  encouragement  in  the  fact 
that  I  address  myself  to  youth,  —  to  young  men 
of  liberal  pursuits  and  zealous  to  be  directed  to 
the  sources  of  real  knowledge  and  sound  principle. 
To  the  growing  mind  that  thirsts  for  information 
supported  by  evidence,  the  lecturer  who  brings 
truths  that  will  bear  investigation  has  a  cheering 
mission.  History  gives  us  many  examples  of  dis- 
ciples, fired  by  earnest  teachers,  who  long  outlived 
their  masters  and  greatly  surpassed  them.  A  word, 
an  expression,  a  turn  of  thought,  may  quicken  in 
some  young  brain  impulses  which  shall  give  direc- 
tion to  all  the  future  labours  of  a  noble  and  suc- 
cessful life. 

Long  after  I  am  dead  and  forgotten,  some  of 
you  may  live  to  say  with  effect  what  I  can  only 
enforce  with  earnest  conviction.  After  the  chas- 
tisements which  a  foolish  age  is  bringing  upon 
itself,  you  may  live  to  be  welcomed  by  a  wiser 
generation.  You  will  find  your  appointed  task 
at  another  epoch.  In  your  faces  I  seem  to  salute 
the  twentieth  century.  As  for  us  who  must  soon 
pass  away,  Morituri  vos  salutamus  !  The  future 
belongs  to  you.  Prepare  yourselves  to  be  its 
masters.  But  be  sure  you  cannot  be  such  save 
as  you  accept  the  lessons  of  human  experience 
from  the  venerable  past.  Under  the  idea  of  pro- 
gress, our  times  are  chasing  a  mere  will-o'-the-wisp  ; 


INTRODUCTOR  Y.  I  3 

a  light  engendered  from  decay,  "  that  leads  to  be- 
wilder and  dazzles  to  blind."  True  progress  always 
takes  up  the  winnowed  harvests  of  the  ages,  and 
scatters  the  seed  of  all  that  must  be  food  for  the 
ages  to  come.  Instead  of  having  "  no  past  at  your 
back,"  the  youth  of  this  Republic  start  with  the 
manifold  treasures  of  all  time,  of  all  arts  and  sci- 
ences, of  all  that  man  has  done,  warned  by  the 
failures  and  mistakes  of  old  countries  and  of  un- 
practical theorists.  You  are  here  in  America  to 
build  up  a  nation  by  the  maxims  of  tried  wisdom, 
and  to  establish  its  institutions  upon  the  rock  of 
God's  word. 

5.    THE   HERITAGE   OF  THE   AGES. 

You  are  heirs  of  the  ages ;  and  it  shall  be  my 
endeavour  to  make  you  great  collectors  of  its  les- 
sons, its  morals,  its  warnings.  Under  my  own  ob- 
servation, a  few  shells  given  to  a  boy,  by  a  friend 
who  encouraged  him  to  add  to  the  little  stock  of 
smooth  and  many-coloured  toys,  created  for  the 
boy  his  life  employment,  made  him  a  naturalist, 
and  enabled  him  to  amass  from  all  the  seas  and 
oceans  of  the  globe  a  museum  of  conchology,  and 
to  classify  and  expound  his  treasures  as  a  philoso- 
pher. So  I  have  known  others  to  be  made  bota- 
nists, or  enthusiasts  in  geology  or  chemistry,  or 
passionate  collectors  of  gems  and  coins.  All  such 
scientific  pursuits  are  ennobling.  Even  the  "dried 
beetle  with  a  pin  stuck  through  him  "  may  be  full 
of  instruction  to  a  careful  observer;  and  under  the 
microscope  what  miracles  of  creative  wisdom  are 


14  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

unfolded  to  the  student  of  an  insect's  eye  or  wing! 
But  I  claim  for  the  student  of  historic  truth  a 
nobler  sphere,  and  the  faculty  of  bringing  together 
a  sublimer  collection  for  ends  unspeakably  more 
practical  and  beneficial  to  the  world.  You  collect 
portraits  and  pictures  out  of  every  age  and  clime, 
and  furnish  the  chambers  of  your  imagination  with 
all  that  is  most  beautiful  and  precious  in  the  results 
of  human  life.  The  philosopher  whose  department 
is  biography  and  history  makes  his  mind  — 

"  A  mansion  for  all  lovely  forms, 
His  memory  to  be  a  dwelling-place 
For  all  sweet  sounds  and  harmonies." 

The  whole  world  is  a  mine  for  his  research,  and 
all  times  are  the  fields  of  his  exploration.  From 
the  Pyramids  to  the  Catacombs ;  from  the  ruins  of 
Egypt  or  Assyria  to  the  mysterious  remains  of  the 
Aztecs ;  under  the  arches  and  monuments  of  an- 
cient Rome  ;  amid  the  more  splendid  relics  of  Greek 
art  and  munificent  ostentation  ;  and  passing  thence 
to  the  wealth  of  the  Rhineland,  of  the  Louvre  or 
the  British  Museum,  —  everywhere  among  men,  he 
finds  his  material,  his  work,  and  his  elevated  enjoy- 
ments as  well.  The  master  of  historic  truth  is  the 
master  of  contemporaneous  thought,  in  proportion 
as  he  instructs  his  age  or  contends  with  it.  To 
such  ennobling  pursuits  I  now  invite  you. 

6.     CHRISTIAN   HISTORY. 

You  know  the  difference  between  "anatomy" 
and  "  comparative  anatomy"  in  the  schools  of  the 
sureeon.     The   latter  is  a  science  which  extracts 


INTRODUCTOR  Y. 


15 


auxiliary  knowledge  from  the  bones  and  muscles 
of  brutes,  while  the  anatomist  par  excellence  deals 
with  the  physical  frame  of  man.  In  calling  your 
attention  to  Christian  history,  I  remind  you  that 
the  history  of  Pagans  and  Barbarians  is  but  com- 
parative history,  —  a  useful  auxiliary  merely.  But 
the  history  of  Christendom  is  the  history  of  man 
as  very  man,  the  image  of  his  Maker.  Christian 
history  is  the  history  of  civilization ;  Christianity 
alone  is  the  civilizer  of  the  human  animal.  At 
best,  the  race  beyond  its  pale  exhibits  only  here 
and  there  a  specimen  of  true  manhood.  It  is  only 
as  enlightened  from  the  manger  of  Bethlehem  and 
the  cross  of  Calvary  that  the  race  ceases  to  be 
savage. 

Reflect  that  Christianity  is  as  old  as  the  world. 
Among  the  patriarchs  and  under  Moses  it  worked 
only  in  element.  "  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world," 
said  the  Master  to  the  Galilean  fishermen;  and 
so  it  has  proved.  Not  where  the  Gospel  is  merely 
named,  but  in  proportion  as  it  penetrates  the  life 
of  a  nation,  this  is  realized.  It  needs  no  elaborate 
argument.  One  scorns  to  argue  that  sunlight 
makes  the  day.  Look  at  mankind,  look  at  the 
nations.  The  character  of  the  true  woman  is  the 
influence  that  refines,  and  where  is  the  true  woman, 
the  wife,  the  mother,  the  home,  apart  from  Chris- 
tianity?    In  a  word,  Christianity  is  civilization. 

7-     THE   PIVOT. 

The  world's  history  turns,  as  on  a  pivot,  upon 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  upon  the  great  mission, 


1 6  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel." 
The  Old  Testament  shows  us  how  all  preceding 
history  was  its  prelude,  and  every  succeeding 
generation  establishes  the  fundamental  truth,  that 
the  people  and  nation  that  will  not  be  taught  of 
Christ  must  perish.  Adequate  ideas  of  the  world's 
history  can  be  gained,  if  this  be  true,  by  him  only 
who  surveys  the  world  from  this  standpoint. 

8.     EMPIRICAL  HISTORY. 

It  is  a  curious  thing  in  literature,  that  popular 
historians  have  been  to  so  great  an  extent  inspired 
I  by  an  unnatural  enthusiasm  against  the  Gospel. 
Such  a  perverted  genius  as  that  of  Gibbon  has 
unfortunately  controlled  the  fancies  of  others,  and 
our  libraries  are  filled  with  elaborate  distortions 
of  historic  fact,  one  book  begotten  of  another, 
and  all  conveying  the  most  confused  and  inade- 
quate ideas  of  the  world's  progress.  What  a 
splendid  opportunity  was  lost  by  Gibbon,  when 
he  resolved  to  leave  out  from  his  narrative  the 
story  of  the  apostles  and  martyrs,  ignoring  the 
unquestionable  base  of  all  he  undertook  to  tell !' 
The  stubborn  facts  could  not  be  overlooked ;  but, 
as  far  as  possible,  he  gropes  on  with  Paganism 
under  the  Antonines,  without  reference  to  realities 
which  he  only  reaches  in  his  fifteenth  chapter, 
and  of  which  he  then  condescends  to  take  notice 
as  "  a  very  essential  part  of  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Empire."  Ah,  indeed !  Hamlet  a  very 
interesting  part  of  the  drama !  The  entire  chapter 
reflects  disgrace  upon  its  author,  alike  by  its  place 


INTRO  D  UCTOR  V.  j  j 

in  his  ponderous  work,  and  by  the  spirit  with 
which  he  struggles  to  assign  the  origin  and  pro- 
gress of  the  Gospel  to  every  cause  but  the  true 
one,  —  to  every  auxiliary  influence,  forgetting  those 
which  are  primary  and  fundamental.  It  is  as 
if  an  historian  of  the  United  States  of  America 
should  begin  with  the  great  exhibition  of  industries 
which  took  place  in  Philadelphia  at  our  late  Cen- 
tennial Celebration  of  Independence,  and  then, 
after  a  volume  about  the  activity  and  enterprise 
of  the  American  people,  should  devote  a  chapter 
to  prove  that  Washington  and  his  contemporaries 
deserved  a  retrospective  glance,  as  having  in  a 
remarkable  manner  fallen  in  with  times  and  cir- 
cumstances and  mingled  some  wisdom  and  more 
mistake  in  their  influences  upon  succeeding  times 
and  manners. 

9.     CONVENTIONAL  IDEAS. 

A  better  class  of  historians,  such  as  Robertson, 
and  Ranke,  and  Dean  Milman,  have  been  unable 
to  divest  themselves  of  conventional  ideas  and 
habits  in  their  valuable  works.  They  adhere  to 
traditional  notions  and  misleading  phrases,  even 
where  they  demonstrate  the  fallacy  of  such  forms 
of  thought  and  speech.  Thus,  while  they  tell  us 
about  the  exploded  Decretals,  and  other  fables 
of  the  mediaeval  period,  they  still  adopt  the  old 
raiment  of  language  which  puzzles  the  student. 
They  speak  of  Roman  pontificates,  as  if  there  had 
been  such  things  in  the  days  of  Clement  or  Hip- 
polytus,  and  give  us  tables  of  "  the  Popes  "  begin- 


1 8  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

ning  with  St.  Peter !  In  the  very  same  pages  they 
demonstrate  that  St.  Peter  was  never  at  Rome 
except  to  be  beheaded,  and  that  it  is  about  as 
sensible  to  call  Sylvester  a  Pope  as  it  would  be  to 
date  the  Empire  from  the  first  consulate,  to  speak 
of  the  "  Emperor  Cincinnatus,"  or  to  paint  him  at 
his  plough  in  imperial  purple. 

10.     AN   UNDERESTIMATED   EPOCH. 

The  transfer  of  the  Roman  capital  to  Byzan- 
tium, for  example,,  is  evidence  of  overwhelming 
significance,  as  to  the  workings  of  Christianity  be- 
fore Constantine,  as  to  the  predominance  of  the 
East  in  its  origin  and  progress  for  three  centu- 
ries, and  as  to  the  leavening  influences  in  Roman 
politics,  which,  in  spite  of  Diocletian  and  the  per- 
secutors before  him,  had  made  such  an  astounding 
revolution  possible,  if  not  inevitable.  Christianity 
had  made  no  assault  upon  the  Caesars ;  but  the 
upsetting  of  their  throne  upon  the  seven  hills,  and 
the  removal  of  their  capital  to  the  Thracian  Bos- 
porus, was  a  mere  index  of  what  it  had  been 
doing  while  it  fought  with  the  rabble  of  Olym- 
pus and  mocked  the  shameful  superstitions  of 
mythology.  Yet  this  most  consummate  of  all  the 
changes  and  revolutions  in  history  has  been  well- 
nigh  overlooked,  or  only  treated  as  a  curious  in- 
cident. Like  the  Chinese,  who  survey  the  universe 
each  one  from  his  own  habitation  as  its  focus,  our 
historians  have  thought  and  written  as  Occidentals. 
They  have  not  condescended  to  observe  that  the 
original  seat  of  Christianity  was  the  Orient;  that 


INTRODUCTORY. 


19 


its  triumph  was  the  triumph  of  Greek  thought 
over  the  less  intellectual  Latin  races;  that  this 
truth  was  the  magnet  that  drew  the  Empire  east- 
ward, that  diminished  the  influence  and  dignity 
of  old  Rome,  and  that  dictated  to  it  from  the 
CEcumenical  Synods,  —  all  Eastern  in  geography, 
all  Greek  in  language  —  in  their  idiomatic  expres- 
sion of  dogma.  How  comes  it,  when  to  state 
these  admitted  facts  is  to  prove  the  conclusions  to 
which  I  point  you,  —  how  comes  it  that  all  our 
popular  histories,  and  most  of  those  which  aim 
to  be  scientific,  chronicle  these  truths  indeed,  and 
then  go  on  to  ignore  them?  They  treat  of  Chris- 
tianity as  if  it  were  generated  in  Italy,  and  as  if 
its  first  doctors  and  missionaries  had  been  com- 
missioned from  the  Vatican,  in  the  same  pages  that 
enable  us  to  prove  the  essentially  Grecian  origin 
and  character  of  the  Church. 

11.     THE    RUTS   OF   HABIT. 

The  human  mind  is  slow  to  turn  out  of  the  ruts 
of  habit;  it  prefers  the  beaten  way,  even  when  it 
makes  them  plod  in  a  thoroughfare  imprinted  only 
by  the  hoofs  of  asses.  A  noteworthy  example 
presents  itself  in  the  condescension  of  transcendent 
genius  to  the  trammels  of  conventional  expression. 
Milton  flourished  more  than  a  century  after  the 
true  theory  of  the  universe  had  been  taught  by 
the  presbyter  Copernicus;  he  had  himself  con- 
versed with  Galileo,  who  crowned  the  system  of 
Copernicus  with  the  glory  of  irrefragable  demon- 
stration.    Milton  understood  the  heliocentric  struc- 


20  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

ture  of  the  solar  system,  and  the  rotations  of  the 
earth,  diurnal  and  annual.  Now  it  is  most  curious, 
that,  although  his  great  poem  would  have  gained 
immensely  by  adopting  this  philosophy,  and  placing 
Uriel  in  a  central  sun,  he  yet  stuck  to  the  conven- 
tional ideas  of  the  poets,  and  so  commensurately 
degraded  the  ground  plan  of  his  immortal  epic. 
The  critical  student  of  that  scheme  may  recall 
the  explorations  of  Lucifer,  as  he  passed  through 
Chaos  and  at  last  discovered  our  universe,  enclosed 
in  a  spherical  shell  and  pendent  from  the  resplen- 
dent gates  of  Heaven.  When  he  gained  the  sur- 
face of  this  shell,  and  looked  down  upon  the  stellar 
worlds  enclosed  within,  how  admirably  it  would 
have  suited  the  poet's  purpose  to  have  conducted 
him  to  our  solar  system,  by  a  discovery  of  its 
real  nature,  —  the  glorious  sun  illuminating  the 
planets,  and  our  earth,  with  its  little  moon,  in  its 
true  relations  with  all  the  rest.  But  no :  even  the 
gigantic  genius  of  Milton  must  fall  into  the  dull 
routine  of  untruthful  science,  and  disfigure  his  work 
with  the  rubbish  of  the  outworn  Ptolemaic  theory ; 
that  incomparable  monument  of  the  genius  and 
plausibility  with  which  mankind  can  embellish 
what  is  false,  and  make  "  the  worse  appear  the 
better  reason."  Take  a  specimen  of  the  conse- 
quences: — 

"  They  pass  the  planets  seven,  and  pass  the  fix'd, 
And  that  crystalline  sphere  whose  balance  weighs 
The  trepidation  talk'd,  and  that  first  moved." 

Here  is  neither  rhyme  nor  reason;  but  it  illus- 
trates my  point,  namely,  the  disposition  even  of 
noble    minds   to    adopt   the  idols  of  the  market- 


INTROD  UCTOR  V.  2  I 

place,  to  express  themselves  in  phrases  of  vulgar 
thought,  and  to  sacrifice  truth  to  popular  ignorance 
for  momentary  convenience.1 

12.    ANOTHER  EXAMPLE. 

Take  a  notable  example.  Canon  Hussey  in  his 
valuable  work,  "The  Rise  of  the  Papal  Power," 
demonstrates  that  this  enormous  system  was  the 
product  of  multiplied  abuses,  beginning  with  harm- 
less incidents  and  accidents,  and  growing  by  slow 
accretions  into  the  arrogant  claims  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  A  schoolboy's  snowball  becomes  an  ava- 
lanche, in  like  manner,  when  it  falls  from  his  hand 
and  rolls  down  the  mountain.  It  was  not  the  ava- 
lanche, however,  while  it  was  the  plaything.  Yet 
this  learned  author  confounds  his  own  plan  of 
tracing  the  "Rise  of  the  Papal  Power,"  by  talking 
of  the  "  supremacy  "  (which  was  never  universally 
admitted  or  enforced  even  in  the  Roman  com- 
munion until  our  own  times)  as  if  it  existed  from 
the  fourth  century.  He  confounds  it  with  the 
"primacy";  and  while  he  shows  that  the  whole 
fabric  grew  out  of  a  harmless  function  conferred 
only  for  the  West  by  a  provincial  council,  and 
probably  by  an  abuse  of  that,  he  yet  speaks  of 
"  the  supremacy "  as  if  it  had  been  born  at  this 
council,  where,  as  he  proves  clearly  enough,  such 
a  thing  was  not  even  conceived.2  Going  back  of 
this,  however,  he  calls  good  Sylvester  "  Pope 
Sylvester " ;  whereas  if  he  was  a  Pope  in  the 
Nicene  age,  there  was  no  "Rise  of  the  Papal 
i  See  Note  A.  2  See  Note  B. 


22  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Power."  Why  do  men  go  on  proving  by  facts 
what  they  seem  to  refute  in  words?  If  a  scholar 
undertakes  to  show  how  and  when  Bishops  of 
Rome  became  "  Popes,"  why  does  he  confound 
his  pupil  by  calling  them  "  popes "  ages  before 
a  pope  was  dreamed  of?  To  recur  to  my  illus- 
tration :  all  this  misleads  and  mystifies,  as  when 
the  Ptolemaic  system  is  adopted  in  practice,  while 
the  Copernican  verities  are  theoretically  proved. 

13.     TOKENS   OF   A   NEW   ERA. 

There  are  gratifying  tokens  of  an  approaching 
era  of  investigation,  and  of  historiography  based 
on  demonstrated  truth  and  fact.  Several  recent 
writers  have  just  fallen  short  of  making  themselves 
leaders  in  this  coming  era  of  scientific  history.  In 
a  mere  sentence  Milman  records  a  fact,  which,  had 
he  seen  its  importance,  would  have  led  him  to 
construct  his  history  of  Latin  Christianity  on  fresh 
and  original  bases.  Such  work  would  have  im- 
mortalized him.  I  refer  to  his  brief  but  all  impor- 
tant statement  that  the  local  Roman  church  was 
for  three  hundred  years  a  mere  colony  of  Greek 
Christianity,  and  that  the  Church's  roots  and  ma- 
trices were  wholly  Oriental.1  Dean  Stanley  en- 
larges on  this  in  his  "  Eastern  Church,"  but  just 
misses  the  bearings  of  his  facts.  Had  he  based 
his  attractive  work  upon  them,  it  would  have  risen 
to  the  rank  of  a  grand  epoch-maker,  a  genuine 
work  of  genius.  Take,  for  example,  the  passage  I 
will  cite,  and  observe  how  it  revolutionizes  con- 
1  See  Note  C. 


INTRO  D  UCTOR  Y.  23 

ventional  ideas  of  the  antiquity  of  the  Paparchy, 
or  of  Rome  as  the  "  mother  of  churches."  He 
says : — 

"  The  Greek  Church  reminds  us  of  the  time  when  the 
tongue,  not  of  Rome,  but  of  Greece,  was  the  sacred  lan- 
guage of  Christendom.  It  was  a  striking  remark  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon,  that  the  introduction  of  Christianity 
itself  was,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  triumph  of  Greece  over 
Rome ;  the  last  and  most  signal  instance  of  the  maxim  of 
Horace,  Grcecia  capta  ferum  victorem  cepit.  The  early 
Roman  church  was  but  a  colony  of  Greek  Christians  or 
Grecized  Jews.  The  earliest  Fathers  of  the  Western 
Church  wrote  in  Greek.  The  early  popes  were  not  Ital- 
ians, but  Greeks.  The  name  of  pope  is  not  Latin,  but 
Greek,  the  common  and  now  despised  name  of  every 
pastor  in  the  Eastern  Church.  .  .  .  She  isthemot/ier,  and 
Rome  the  daughter.  It  is  her  privilege  to  claim  a  direct 
continuity  of  speech  with  the  earliest  times ;  to  boast  of 
reading  the  whole  code  of  Scripture,  Old  as  well  as  New, 
in  the  language  in  which  it  was  read  and  spoken  by  the 
Apostles.  The  humblest  peasant  who  reads  his  Septua- 
gint  or  Greek  Testament  in  his  own  mother  tongue  on 
the  hills  of  Bceotia  may  proudly  feel  that  he  has  access  to 
the  original  oracles  of  divine  truth  which  pope  and  car- 
dinal reach  by  a  barbarous  and  imperfect  translation ;  that 
he  has  a  key  of  knowledge  which  in  the  West  is  only  to 
be  found  in  the  hands  of  the  learned  classes." 1 

All  this  is  true,  but  the  author  fails  to  see  what 
it  carries  with  it.  E  pur  si  muove,  said  Galileo ; 
but  if  that  was  true,  the  whole  system  of  the  uni- 
verse was  to  be  reformed,  as  it  existed  in  the 
schools  and  in  the  inveterate  habits  of  human 
thought.  "  The  East  is  the  mother,  and  Rome  the 
1  See  Note  D. 


24         INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

daughter,"  says  the  Dean ;  but  if  this  be  true,  the 
entire  structure  of  scholastic  theology,  the  Papar- 
chy,  and  the  Council  of  Trent,  are  swept  away 
with  the  fallacy  that  assumes  the  reverse.  Dean 
Stanley's  work  should  have  proceeded  on  this  fun- 
damental fact  of  history,  and  his  history  of  the 
East  should  have  been  illustrated  in  its  true  rela- 
tions to  the  original  constitutions  of  Christendom. 

14.     A   BRILLIANT   WORK  THAT  JUST   MISSES   A 
PRIZE. 

But  the  saddest  specimen  of  collapse  is  the  frame- 
work of  a  book  which  would  have  revolutionized 
Western  thought  about  one  of  the  grandest  of  his- 
torical themes,  had  it  been  true  to  the  very  facts 
which  it  proceeds  to  make  evident.  I  refer  to 
Bryce's  "  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  a  most  valuable 
work,  and  one  which  betokens  the  coming  era,  but 
only  as  a  foggy  morning  is  often  the  harbinger  of 
a  brilliant  day.  How  could  the  writer  have  missed 
the  opportunity  of  identifying  the  rise  of  the 
"  Holy  Roman  Empire  "  with  the  formation  of  the 
Paparchy,  which  never  existed  till  Charlemagne 
had  created  the  possibility  of  a  new  oecumenical 
theory  for  the  Church  by  creating  a  new  CEcume- 
iie,  or  Imperial  basis,  for  its  development.  Bryce 
fails  to  economize  this  truth.  It  is  a  pity  that  so 
good  a  monograph  must  be  written  over  again. 
Its  faults  are  as  glaring  as  its  merits  are  great; 
and  that  is  saying  much  in  a  single  phrase.1 

1  See  Note  E. 


INTRODUCTOR  Y. 


15.    SCIENTIFIC   HISTORY. 


25 


Now  the  new  era  of  scientific  history  will  be 
created  just  as  soon  as  some  able  and  original 
genius  shall  be  raised  up  to  apply,  in  historiogra- 
phy, the  principles  which  our  age  has  inexora- 
bly demanded  in  other  scientific  work.  The  law 
of  such  a  movement  is  simply  that  of  sweeping 
away  demonstrated  falsehood  and  fable,  and  of 
proceeding  at  every  step  upon  the  rock  founda- 
tion of  fact.  If  the  East  gave  to  Christianity  its 
historic  form  and  shape,  its  creed  and  doctrine,  its 
whole  cast  and  visible  outline  before  the  world, 
why  not  proceed  accordingly?  Yes,  why  not? 
A  thousand  myths  disappear  from  the  Western 
mind  when  once  these  truths  are  worked  out  and 
made  manifest.  No  more  haggling  about  the  popes 
of  controvertists.  The  entire  Papal  theory  per- 
ishes as  soon  as  we  find  where  Rome  stood  at  first, 
and  how  absolutely  inconsiderable  was  her  place 
in  the  early  founding  and  teaching  of  churches. 

16.    THE   MOTHER   OF  THEOLOGY. 

He  who  examines  the  true  history  of  the  ages 
before  Constantine  is  forced  to  find  in  Alexandria 
all  with  which  popes  and  schoolmen  have  credited 
old  Rome.  After  Antioch,  the  see  of  St.  Mark  was 
the  nurse,  if  not  the  mother,  of  the  churches,  and 
if  not  their  mistress,  yet  their  schoolmaster.1  It 
formed  their  mind  and  speech.  Latin  Christianity 
itself  rose  out  of  Alexandria,  the  head  and  brain 
1  See  Note  F. 


26  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

of  original  Christendom.  It  was  formed  in  Africa 
and  in  Carthage,  not  in  Rome.  Entire  indepen- 
dence of  Rome  was  steadily  maintained  under  the 
founders  of  Latin  theology,  —  Tertullian,  Minu- 
cius  Felix,  Cyprian,  Lactantius,  Arnobius,  and 
Augustine.  Rome  had  no  voice,  in  her  own 
tongue,  till  the  heretic  Novatian  first  spoke  in  her 
and  for  her.  From  Clement  to  Hippolytus,  and 
later,  her  few  writers  thought  in  Greek,  wrote  in 
Greek,  and  submitted  their  work  to  the  maternal 
churches  of  the  East,  as  filial  and  loyal  sons.  To 
exhibit  these  facts  is  to  dismiss  the  whole  system 
of  the  Latin  schools,  based  on  unhistoric  myths 
and  fables,  all  as  baseless  as  the  "  Donation  of 
Constantine,"  and  all  as  recent  in  their  fabrication. 

17.    INSTITUTES. 

In  presenting  these  Institutes,  then,  to  my  young 
pupils  in  this  University,  I  undertake  to  proceed 
upon  a  rigidly  scientific  plan,  of  which  I  have  tried 
to  explain  the  scientific  grounds.  I  adopt  the  old 
word  institutes  to  signify  elementary  instructions. 
They  present,  in  outline,  certain  predominant  fea- 
tures of  history,  which  will  guide  to  just  conclu- 
sions in  the  further  studies  to  which  they  introduce 
the  learner.  And  now  let  me  fortify  my  positions 
by  citing  the  language  of  a  man  of  science,  who 
speaks  for  other  purposes  and  with  a  different  in- 
tent, upon  the  very  matter  which  underlies  my 
plan.  He,  too,  gives  token  of  the  new  era  as  at 
hand.1  Could  any  one  have  expected  from  the 
1  See  Note  G. 


JNTR  OD  UC  TOR  Y. 


27 


apologist  of  Huxley  and  Darwin  such  a  tribute  to 
primitive  Christianity  as  John  Fiskc  has  given  us 
in  the  following  passages?     He  says:  — 

"  It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  characteristics  of  the 
idea  of  God  as  conceived  by  the  three  great  Fathers  of 
the  Greek  Church,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen,  and 
Athanasius.  The  philosophy  of  these  profound  and  vigor- 
ous thinkers  was,  in  large  measure,  derived  from  the 
Stoics,"  etc. 

"  The  views  of  Clement's  disciple,  Origen,  are  much 
like  those  of  his  master.  Athanasius  ventured  much  fur- 
ther into  the  bewildering  regions  of  metaphysics.  Yet 
in  his  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  ...  he  proceeded  upon 
the  lines  which  Clement  had  marked  out." 

"  It  is  instructive  to  note  how  closely  Athanasius  ap- 
proaches the  confines  of  modern  scientific  thought,  simply 
through  his  fundamental  conception  of  God  as  the  in- 
dwelling life  of  the  universe." 

Now,  without  pausing  to  correct  some  possible 
misconceptions  of  this  great  matter,  I  ask  you  to 
observe  the  phenomenon  of  this  mind  struggling 
out  of  "  modern  thought  "  towards  what  modern 
thought  has  affected  to  ignore,  and  finding  himself 
met  where  he  stands  by  these  ancient  Fathers  of 
Christendom.  Two  reflections  suggest  themselves 
as  pertinent  to  my  subject:  (1)  It  is  to  primitive 
Christianity  that  modern  science  must  recur  to  find 
its  "  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  " ;  and  (2)  It 
is  to  the  East,  and  to  Alexandria  as  the  fountain- 
head,  that  the  inquirer  into  the  origin  of  Christian 
thought  and  dogma  must  have  recourse. 


28  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

18.    TRUTH,  OLD   AND   NEW. 

Another  suggestion,  I  trust,  will  arrest  the  atten- 
tion of  all  who  hear  me.  In  guiding  your  thoughts 
towards  primitive  antiquity,  I  am  preparing  you 
for  a  wise  and  healthful  investigation  of  recent  re- 
search and  discovery  in  scientific  matters.  How 
often  you  hear  of  these  old  Fathers  as  mere  fos- 
sils ;  and  of  the  Church  of  Christ  as  behind  the 
age.  Listen  again  to  John  Fiske,  as  he  works  his 
way  through  philosophy  to  Theism.1    He  says :  — 

"  One  has  only  to  adopt  the  higher  Theism  of  Clement 
and  Athanasius,  and  the  alleged  antagonism  between  sci- 
ence and  theology,  by  which  so  many  hearts  have  been 
saddened,  so  many  minds  darkened,  vanishes  forever." 

And  now  mark  what  he  says  of  the  dawn  of 
Christianity,  in  the  period  illuminated  by  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  and  also  what  he  adds  of  Ante-Nicene 
Christianity  in  Alexandria:  — 

"The  intellectual  atmosphere  of  Alexandria  for  two 
centuries  before  and  three  centuries  after  the  time  of 
Christ  was  more  modern  than  anything  that  followed,  down 
to  the  days  of  Bacon  and  Descartes.  .  .  .  The  system  of 
Christian  Theism  was  the  work  of  some  of  the  loftiest 
minds  that  have  ever  appeared  on  the  earth." 

Staking  off  these  five  centuries  accordingly, 
during  which  the  thought  of  Christendom  was 
formed  under  Clement  and  his  forerunners,  reflect 
that  between  the  two  centuries  of  preparation  for 
Christ  and  the  three  that  ushered  in  the  Great 
1  See  Note  H. 


INTRODUCTORY.  29 

Council  of  Nicaea,  our  ultimate  limit,  stands  the 
noble  figure  of  Apollos,  —  "  eloquent  and  mighty 
in  the  Scriptures,"  —  a  monument  of  the  Gospel 
in  its  power  to  unite  the  Jew  and  the  Greek,  and 
not  less  of  the  Church,  to  speak  from  her  ancient 
throne  to  the  hearts  and  minds  of  thinking  men 
in  our  own  distracted  times. 

19.    CATHOLICITY. 

Here  observe  a  most  important  point.  The 
centuries  which  a  disinterested  thinker  has  thus 
characterized,  without  a  thought  of  aiding  the 
position  of  the  Christian,  are  precisely  those  to 
which  the  great  Anglican  doctors  have  appealed  in 
their  noble  work  of  restoration.  For  the  Angli- 
can reformers  were  restorers  rather;  they  brought 
back  the  primitive  simplicity  and  the  unadulterated 
catholicity  of  Nicaea,  —  the  catholicity  which  is 
covered  by  its  own  appeal  to  "  ancient  usages," 
and  by  the  formula  of  the  Nicaeno-Constantino- 
politan  Creed.  Of  course  there  can  be  no  other. 
For  there  cannot  be  two  catholic  churches  nor 
two  catholic  theologies.*  But  in  this  country 
and  in  England  two  antagonist  systems  claim  to 
be  catholic;  which  is  most  harmonious  with  the 
catholicity  of  Nicaea?  If  it  be  true  that  the  first 
three  centuries  were  in  spirit,  not  mediczval,  but 
modem,  the  answer  is  apparent.  If  they  corre- 
spond with  Bacon  and  Descartes  rather  than  with 
Aristotle  and  the  Schoolmen,  then  the  Anglican 
reformation  is  vindicated.  The  "  Syllabus,"  which 
refuses  all  commerce  with  modern  thought,  shows 


30  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

itself  equally  at  war  with  Christian  antiquity.  The 
present  venerable  pontiff,  a  scholar  and  a  most 
respectable  character  in  all  his  personal  qualities, 
has  accepted  the  Syllabus  of  his  unlettered  prede- 
cessor, which  denounces  all  that  freemen  hold  dear, 
while,  to  give  his  thinking  subjects  something 
to  do,  he  commands  them  to  study  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas.  That  is,  they  must  revert  to  the  Middle 
Ages  for  all  the  thinking  they  are  allowed  to  exer- 
cise. Precisely  so.  He  rules  out  the  masculine 
thought  of  genuine  antiquity  as  modern.  He  thus 
convicts  his  theology  of  its  mediaeval  origin,  while 
we  appeal  primarily  to  the  primitive  Fathers,  — 
to  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  to  Athanasius,  not 
undervaluing  Aquinas  so  far  as  he  agrees  with 
antiquity.  It  is  not  difficult,  then,  to  decide  where 
catholicity  is  to  be  found,  if  the  apostolic  ages  and 
the  primitive  Fathers  supply  the  criterion.  Ours 
is  the  old  religion,  because  it  is  identified  with  the 
oldest.  We  appeal  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  inter- 
preted by  the  whole  undivided  Church  at  Nicaea.1 
Leo  XIII.  appeals  to  Aquinas2  and  to  the  systems 
of  a  divided  Christendom,  —  to  the  West  and  to 
the  twelfth  century  with  those  that  followed,  down 
to  the  Trent  Council.  And  this  was  a  council  of 
the  West  only,  and  of  the  sixteenth  century,  com- 
posed chiefly  of  Italians,  and  engineered  by  the 
Jesuits,  who  had  just  been  created,  and  whose 
conduct  excited  the  indignant  remonstrances  of 
all  the  abler  theologians  there  assembled.  Which, 
then,  is  the  catholic  system,  —  ours  or  theirs?  3 

i  A.  D.  325.  2  a.  D.  1274.  3  See  Note  I. 


INTRODUCTOR  Y. 


20.     A   COMPARISON. 


31 


Note,  also,  that  there  can  no  more  be  two 
catholic  churches  in  Christendom,  than  there  can 
be  two  universal  physical  systems  in  the  same 
universe.  But  the  "  Roman  Catholic  "  scheme  of 
catholicity  accepts  only  the  Western  churches,  and 
excludes  the  more  ancient  churches  of  the  East, 
while  ours  includes  just  what  the  Nicene  Creed 
includes;  that  is  to  say,  all  the  Greek  and  Latin 
churches,  and  all  other  churches  which  preserve 
an  apostolic  episcopate  and  the  Nicene  faith. 
We  recognize  the  Latin  churches  as  part  of  the 
Catholic  Church  ;  "  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is 
a  fiction,  derived  from  the  "  Holy  Roman  Empire," 
which  called  itself  the  cccumcne,  and  hence  con- 
sidered its  established  church  oecumenical.  Ana- 
lyze this  artificial  system  and  you  find  it  made  up 
of  ancient  national  churches  which  are  all  catholic 
in  organic  form,  but  orthodox  just  so  far  as  they 
adhere  to  the  primitive  theology,  and  no  further. 
With  all  her  blemishes  and  failings,  the  Anglican 
Church  is  ready  to  be  judged  by  this  rule,  and  it  is 
a  rule  which  utterly  destroys  all  claims  of  catho- 
licity for  those  Latins  who  adhere  to  the  modern 
Council  of  Trent,  and  the  yet  more  modern  —  nay, 
the  recent  —  additions  of  Pius  IX.,  which  reduce 
their  creed  to  a  thing  of  yesterday.1 

21.     BACON   AND   HIS   IDOLS. 


How  comes  it  that  many  gifted  men  fail  to  see 
when  once 
1  See  Note  J. 


what  is  so  evident  when  once  set  in  the  light  of 


32  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

facts  and  of  common  sense?  I  have  spoken  of 
the  ruts  of  habit ;  let  me  refer  to  Bacon's  forcible 
postulates  concerning  "  Idols."  That  great  inciter 
of  all  genuine  "modern  thought"  threw  down 
the  idols  of  the  Schoolmen  which  dominated  in 
the  realms  of  physical  science;  but  even  to  our 
own  times  their  idols  have  largely  stultified  the 
domain  of  theology  and  corrupted  historic  truth. 
He  was  himself  an  illustration  of  the  sway  of  idols 
over  the  human  intellect,  for  he  remained  a  slave 
to  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy,  in  spite  of  his  emanci- 
pation from  so  much  that  clouded  and  fettered 
intellect  in  his  times.  He  calls  these  idols,  images, 
or,  as  we  should  name  them,  illusions,  "  the  deepest 
fallacies  of  the  human  mind ;  "  and  he  adds,  "  They 
do  not  deceive  in  particulars,  as  do  other  fallacies, 
which  cloud  and  ensnare  the  judgment,  .  .  .  but 
they  are  imposed  upon  the  understanding  (i)  by 
the  general  nature  of  the  human  race,  or  (2)  by 
the  particular  nature  of  every  several  man,  or 
(3)  by  words,  or  communicative  nature."  To  ex- 
pose, in  some  degree,  the  influence  of  a  corrupt  use 
of  words  in  producing  the  confusions  of  historical 
authors  and  of  popular  thought  is  part  of  my  plan. 
For  the  idols  of  the  market-place,  which  still  main- 
tain themselves  in  our  day  are  almost  ineradicable 
and  supremely  mischievous.  Words  as  under- 
stood in  the  streets  and  used  by  the  vulgar,  when 
adopted  by  the  learned  in  all  their  ambiguity,  are 
instruments  for  distilling  nightshade  alike  inebriat- 
ing and  fatal  to  intelligence.1 

1  See  Note  K. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


22.     DATES   OF  ANCHORAGE. 


33 


Such  idols  have  too  long  neutralized  the  pene- 
trating and  generative  sunlight  of  historic  truth, 
as  icebergs  and  fogs  hinder  the  advance  of  spring. 
Let  me  present  an  outline  of  the  points  to  be 
illustrated  in  these  Lectures,  which  will  be  an 
effort  to  confute  idols.  For  I  pursue  a  practical 
plan,  and  am  willing  to  let  historic  facts  speak 
for  themselves.  But  to  be  felt  in  all  their  force, 
let  them  be  presented  with  method.  What  Ruskin 1 
has  called  "  dates  of  anchorage  "  are  essential  to 
the  student  of  history,  who  would  grasp  and  retain 
great  facts  and  epochs,  on  which  others  turn  as 
upon  pivots  or  hinges.  Geography  and  chronol- 
ogy are  the  eyes  of  historical  science.  Skeleton 
maps  must  be  hung  up  before  the  mental  eyesight, 
and  they  must  be  bordered  with  cardinal  dates  of 
the  world's  annals,  —  the  epoch-marking  dates,  that 
is,  or  those  which  have  created  eras  in  history. 
An  epoch  is  a  point  of  time;  an  era  is  a  period 
developed  from  it,  as  a  line  is  generated  in  ge- 
ometry. He  who  seizes  these  pivots,  hinges,  or 
"  dates  of  anchorage,"  becomes  master  of  the  art. 
Minor  dates  and  epochs  marshal  themselves  natu- 
rally about  these  heights  of  command,  which  afford 
the  soldier  a  masterly  survey  of  fields  where  he 
may  meet  an  enemy.  Take,  for  illustration,  some 
notable  examples. 

The  most  convenient  and  sharp-cut  date  in 
Christian  history  is  that  of  Charlemagne's  creation 
of  the  Latin  Empire ;   he  was  crowned,  or  virtually 

1  See  Note  L. 
3 


34  INSTITUTES   OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

crowned  himself,  on  Christmas  day,  A.  D.  800.  No- 
body can  forget  such  a  date  as  this ;  and  you  ob- 
serve that  it  divides  modern  history  very  equally, 
if  we  confine  ancient  history,  as  we  should,  to  the 
periods  before  the  Light  of  the  World  appeared. 
And  note  its  commanding  character :  it  marks  the 
era  of  Western  history,  as  distinct  from  that  of  the 
East.  It  is  the  index  of  Latin  Christianity  left  to 
itself;  severed  from  its  parent  stem ;  developing 
into  something  alien  to  catholicity;  creating  the 
Paparchy;  involving  the  Latin  churches  in  func- 
tional schism  ;  defiling  them  with  novelties  ;  dark- 
ening their  atmosphere  with  the  mists  of  fable ; 
disfiguring  the  worship  of  God  with  idolatries ; 
inventing  new  theologies,  and  condemning  the 
West  to  centuries  of  ignorance  and  superstition, 
not  inappropriately  called  the  "  Dark  Ages."  Not 
that  Charlemagne  promoted  this  directly  or  inten- 
tionally. The  reverse  is  eminently  true.  But  his 
policy  created  the  Paparchy,  which  had  no  exist- 
ence before  his  time,  nor  while  he  lived ;  and  to 
the  Paparchy,  based  on  the  imposture  of  the  De- 
cretals, we  owe  the  Dark  Ages,  which  include  the 
whole  period  from  A.  D.  900  to  1400.  The  Middle 
Ages  include  this  period,  and  stretch  from  the 
eighth  century  to  the  sixteenth,  from  the  imperial 
crowning  of  Charlemagne  to  the  birth  of  Charles- 
Quint. 

23.     THE   GREAT   EPOCHS. 

Observe  other  "  dates  of  anchorage,"  in  dealing 
with  Western  history,  to  which  we  shall  be  neces- 
sarily  limited    in   these  Lectures   when    once   we 


INTRO  D  UCTOR  Y. 


35 


touch  the  era  of  Charlemagne.  After  the  nativity 
of  our  Divine  Lord,  the  great  epoch  of  Constan- 
tine  and  the  Council  of  Nice  (A.  I).  325)  marks  the 
close  of  the  martyr  ages  and  the  subjection  of 
the  Caesars  to  the  cross.  The  period  which  closes 
with  Charlemagne  is  that  of  Catholic  unity,  under 
the  Synodical  Constitutions.  From  Charlemagne 
to  Charles-Quint,  we  have  seven  hundred  years 
of  Western  schism,  the  Paparchy  and  the  inferior 
epochs  of  Imperial  and  Papal  strifes,  the  Crusades 
and  the  Scholastics.  From  A.  D.  1500,  the  epoch 
of  Charles  the  Fifth,  we  date  the  increase  of  learn- 
ing, the  struggles  for  popular  freedom,  the  Con- 
tinental Reformers,  the  Anglican  Restoration,  and 
the  creation  of  the  "  Roman  Catholic  Church,"  — 
which,  as  such,  is  a  modern  organization,  more 
recent  than  Lutheranism  itself. 

24.     A   PRACTICAL   PLAN. 

In  establishing  this  reformed  syllabus  of  histori- 
cal science,  my  scheme  is  less  bold  than  at  first 
sight  might  appear.  It  pretends  to  no  original  dis- 
coveries as  to  matters  of  fact :  every  point  on  which 
the  scheme  depends  has  been  proved,  elucidated, 
overwhelmingly  established,  by  learned  writers,  — 
as  well  among  those  who  have  retained  communion 
with  Rome,  like  Erasmus,  Bossuet,  and  the  Jansen- 
ists,  as  by  the  Continental  Reformed  and  the  grand 
old  Caroline  theologians  of  England.  My  only 
innovations  are  found  in  accepting  the  demonstra- 
tions of  these  authorities,  and  constructing  a  har- 
monious   system    accordingly,    giving    facts    their 


36  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

place,  enforcing  their  value,  and  calling  things  by 
their  right  names.  For  example,  the  unparalleled 
imposture  of  the  Decretals  is  admitted  by  Jesuits 
and  Gallicans ;  they  are  laughed  out  of  court  by 
the  Ultramontanes  themselves.1  Yet  these  "  idols 
of  the  market-place  "  impose  on  Protestants  gener- 
ally. For  they  go  on  calling  things  by  the  fabulous 
terms  and  phrases  which  the  Decretals  created. 
They  ignore  the  East  and  the  constitutions  of  Cath- 
olicity, and  give  to  the  parvenu  system  of  Trent  the 
old  Nicene  title  of  "  the  Catholic  Church."  They 
speak  of  the  Roman  pontiffs  as  "  successors  of 
St.  Peter";  they  dishonour  the  apostle's  memory, 
by  speaking  of  the  criminal  throne  of  the  Vatican 
as  the  "  chair  of  St.  Peter " ;  they  surrender  his- 
tory to  the  fabulists,  by  making  the  early  Bishops 
of  Rome  into  a  succession  of  "  Popes,"  created 
by  Christ  himself,  and  they  confound  the  canoni- 
cal "primacy,"  conferred  by  the  Councils  of  Nice 
and  Constantinople,  with  an  usurped  "supremacy," 
which,  had  it  existed,  would  have  made  the  action 
of  all  councils  equally  superfluous  and  imperti- 
nent.2 Modern  "  Protestantism "  clings  to  its 
name  all  the  more  stoutly  because  it  has  ceased 
to  protest.  It  believes  in  God  with  all  its  heart, 
but,  after  all,  feels  very  charitably  about  the  Devil. 
It  glorifies  Martin  Luther,  but  cannot  but  think 
he  went  a  little  too  far  when  he  burnt  the  Pope's 
bull.  It  adopts  Galileo's  conviction  that  the  earth 
moves,  but  would  not  wholly  censure  the  Roman 
court  for  putting  him  to  torture  and  making  him 
abjure  it  as  heresy.  In  short,  it  always  holds  with 
1  See  Note  M.  2  See  Note  N. 


INTRODUCTORY.  37 

the  hare,  but  prefers  to  run  with  the  hounds,  espe- 
cially if  it  be  in  a  question  of  politics.  It  accepts 
the  Messiah,  and  feels  the  force  of  Ecce  homo  !  but 
its  sympathies  are  always  with  poor  Pilate,  except 
when  even  Pilate  ceased  to  be  a  politician,  and  said, 
"  What  I  have  written  I  have  written." 

25.    THE   SURVEY. 

On  the  principles  I  have  thus  illustrated,  and 
exposing  the  illusions  I  have  mentioned  to  a 
searching  comparison  with  facts,  I  invite  you,  then, 
to  survey  with  me  the  outlines  of  Christian  history, 
in  its  majestic  sweep  through  the  ages  which  we 
owe  to  the  light  of  the  Gospel.  This  survey  will 
prepare  you  for  many  departments  of  study,  and 
will  give  you  a  delight  in  the  ennobling  researches 
to  which  it  is  an  introduction.  Open  your  eyes, 
young  men,  and  if  you  would  know  the  world  you 
have  so  lately  entered,  ask  how  it  came  to  be 
what  you  see  it,  and  then  trace  its  progress  up- 
ward through  the  ages  before  you,  till  your  fa- 
miliarity with  past  times  gives  you  mastery  over 
your  own.  The  lives  of  the  world's  benefactors 
will  inspire  your  life  career.  The  fatal  mistakes 
and  failures  so  sadly  marking  the  pages  of  biogra- 
phy will  warn  you  off  from  shoals  and  quicksands 
which  have  proved  so  fatal  to  your  predecessors. 
You  will  be  philosophers  from  the  start ;  the  ex- 
periments of  others  will  make  your  career  a  suc- 
cess. You  will  go  "  from  strength  to  strength," 
and  age  itself  will  find  you  invested  with  immortal 
youth  in  the  prospect  of  eternity. 

a  0  8  0 


38  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

26.     A   PRACTICAL   USE   OF   HISTORIC    SCIENCE. 

When  you  begin  your  travels,  my  beloved  young 
friends,  recall  "  the  dates  of  anchorage  "  to  which 
I  have  endeavored  to  introduce  you.  On  the  Via 
Sacra  of  old  Rome,  take  your  stand  beneath  the 
Arch  of  Titus:  it  marks1  the  close  of  the  genera- 
tion which  crucified  the  Son  of  God,  and  verifies 
his  prediction  of  the  consequent  downfall  of  Je- 
rusalem and  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews.  Turn 
then  to  the  stupendous  Coliseum,  which,  reared  in 
large  measure  by  the  captive  Jews,  was  the  scene 
of  the  martyrdom  of  Ignatius,  and  stands  an  im- 
perishable memorial  of  the  ages  of  heroic  suffering 
which  saw  the  Church  in  conflict  with  the  princes 
of  this  world.  Hard  by  rises  the  Arch  of  Constan- 
tine,  —  a  memorial  of  the  Nicene  age,  and  of  the 
triumph  of  the  cross  over  Paganism.  The  Column 
of  Phocas,  on  the  other  hand,  beyond  the  Arch  of 
Titus  and  under  the  Capitol,  marks  the  decline 
of  the  Synodical  Period,  and  reminds  us  of  two 
clouds,  not  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  that  became 
visible  just  at  that  epoch:  one  was  the  cloud  of  Is- 
lam in  the  East,  and  the  other  that  of  a  Papacy  in 
the  West.  Cross  the  Alps  and  stand  beneath  the 
cathedral  domes  of  Aix-la-Chapelle;  under  your 
feet  is  the  sepulchre  of  Charlemagne,  with  whom 
the  Middle  Ages  began,  and  there  was  crowned 
Charles  the  Fifth,  his  successor  with  whom  the 
Middle  Ages  expired.  Last  of  all  you  reach  Paris, 
and  survey  that  arch  of  vanity  which  lifts  its  ma- 
jestic bulk  on  the  crown  of  the  Champs  Elysees. 
1  A.  D.  70. 


INTRO  D  UCTOR  Y.  39 

It  stands  for  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
and  the  extinction  of  "  the  Holy  Roman  Empire," 
so  called.  It  marks  the  end  of  just  one  thousand 
years  between  Charlemagne  and  Napoleon.  These 
are  the  landmarks  of  these  Institutes ;  they  indi- 
cate our  "  dates  of  anchorage."  Blind  must  he  be, 
and  dull  beyond  comparison,  who  sees  not  in  the 
precision  of  these  periods,  in  the  characters  and 
the  events  that  created  them,  and  even  in  these 
monuments  which  Providence  has  allowed  proud 
men  to  rear,  and  which  Providence  only  has  pre- 
served, tokens  of  an  overruling  Hand  in  history, 
which  the  wise  and  true  of  heart  must  recognize 
and  understand. 


LECTURE    II. 

THE  APOSTOLIC   FATHERS  AND   NEXT  AGES. 


I.    ANTIOCH. 


T 


HE  disciples  were  called  Christians  first  at 
Antioch,  says  St.  Luke.  Justly  have  the 
antecedents  of  St.  Paul  been  noted  as  providen- 
tially shaping  him  into  the  vessel  of  election  for 
mankind:  not  sufficiently  have  the  specialties  of 
Antioch  been  regarded  as  forming  that  marvel- 
lous capital  to  be  the  cradle  of  the  infant  Church. 
Strange  indeed  that  so  dissolute  a  city  should 
become  the  source  of  human  regeneration,  but 
even  in  this  paradox  we  discover  a  divine  plan. 
The  good  physician  attacks  disease  at  its  seat,  and 
pestilence  must  be  stayed  at  its  source.  Our  Lord 
had  promised  that  his  disciples  should  do  greater 
works  than  his  own ;  and  surely,  when  the  Church, 
in  all  her  virgin  glory,  rose  up  in  Antioch  and 
issued  from  its  port  bearing  the  new  life  to  a 
world  "  lying  in  the  Evil  One,"  there  was  a  greater 
miracle  than  when  Lazarus  obeyed  the  command 
of  Jesus,  and  came  forth  from  his  dank  grave,  a 
putrid  corpse  made  whole.  Here  was  a  dead  man 
revived :  but  from  Antioch  began  the  resurrection 
of  nations  that   lay  festering    in   moral  darkness, 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      41 

bound  with  grave-clothes,  smelling  to  heaven  with 
corruption,  and  powerless  to  help  themselves  as  the 
dry  bones  in  Ezekiel's  valley  of  vision.  Antioch 
itself  was  the  epitome  of  such  a  world. 


2.     A  CONTRAST. 

The  Augustan  age  had  glorified  Rome  with  mar- 
bles for  its  bricks,  and  with  the  golden  lyres  of 
poets  for  its  legions  of  iron,  yet  left  it  more  de- 
based than  ever  before.  Horace  had  just  died, 
and  Herod  was  rivalling  Augustus  in  his  Roman 
extravagance  by  making  the  very  pavement  of 
Antioch  of  solid  marble,  when  the  Galilean  maiden 
sang  her  Magnificat  in  obscure  and  despised  Naz- 
areth, and  gave  the  first  hymn  of  Redemption  to 
those  who  looked  for  the  Messiah.  Nazareth  and 
Antioch !  behold  the  contrast.  But  note  the 
meek  virgin  in  her  cot,  and  all  the  powers  of  the 
world  in  their  forts  and  palaces :  hear  her  sweet 
song,  the  first  strain  of  Christian  poesy,  the  germ 
of  liturgies  and  prayers  for  evangelized  tribes  and 
peoples  of  the  earth,  and  contrast  it  with  the  fran- 
tic rites  of  the  bacchanal,  the  sensual  orgies,  the 
licentious  dances,  and  the  reeking  wickedness  of 
that  city  on  the  Orontes,  which  was  so  absolute  a 
type  of  all  that  stretched  away  from  its  port  to 
Greece  and  Italy,  to  the  barbarians  of  Germany 
and  Gaul,  and  to  the  ancient  seats  of  our  own  race 
in  Jutland  and  Britain.  Truly  hath  God  chosen 
"  the  weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the 
mighty,"  and,  as  we  shall  soon  observe,  "  things 
which    are    despised    hath    God    chosen,  yea   and 


42  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

things  wh 
that  are." 


things  which  are   not,  to  bring  to  naught  things 


3.     AN    INQUIRY. 

But  why  was  Antioch  rather  than  Jerusalem 
made  the  capital  of  the  new  empire  of  Messiah? 
Among  other  reasons  this  will  afford  an  answer : 
the  Prince  of  Peace  came  not  to  the  Jews  only. 
"  In  Him  shall  the  Gentiles  trust,"  was  the  promise 
He  has  so  richly  fulfilled.  Now  Antioch  was  "  a 
mart  of  nations  "  ;  it  was,  in  type,  Gentilism  itself. 
Jerusalem  could  not  be  made  the  metropolis  of 
Catholicity;  it  was  the  stronghold  of  Judaism. 
The  rod  of  the  new  power  was  to  "  go  forth  from 
Jerusalem."  To  have  kept  it  there  would  have 
been  to  fortify  and  perpetuate  those  intense  preju- 
dices of  the  Circumcision,  which  in  the  case  of  St. 
Paul  himself  were  the  most  formidable  of  all  ob- 
stacles to  his  work.  "  New  bottles  for  new  wine." 
He  who  had  broken  down  the  Jewish  wall  of  sepa- 
ration, and  made  the  new  temple  walls  to  unite  Jew 
and  Gentile  in  Himself  as  the  corner-stone,  brought 
both  walls  together  in  Antioch.  It  was  "  the  fool- 
ishness of  God,  wiser  than  men,"  to  economize  the 
moral  rubbish  of  the  Seleucid  capital,  as  he  took 
a  hill  of  refuse  from  the  Jebusites  when  he  created 
Zion  the  stronghold  of  the  typical  Church. 

4.     THE   PORTRAITURE   OF  ANTIOCH. 

The  unhappy  genius  of  Renan  has  so  ably  de- 
picted  this    ancient  Paris,  borrowing    his   colours 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      43 

from  the  modern  one  which  inflames  his  imagina- 
tion and  has  debased  his  pen,  that  it  would  be 
folly  for  me  not  to  adopt  the  vivid  picture  with 
which  he  has  anticipated  the  tasks  of  all  who  would 
hereafter  undertake  to  describe  it.  I  shall  there- 
fore freely  translate  his  brilliant  rhetoric,  amplify- 
ing or  abridging  it  as  may  best  suit  my  purpose,  but 
making  it  my  own  by  the  very  injury  I  must  inflict 
on  such  splendid  work  by  my  attempt  to  infuse  its 
spirit  into  English  words. 

According  to  Renan,1  the  metropolis  of  the  Ori- 
ent was  a  city  of  more  than  five  hundred  thou- 
sand souls.  Before  its  recent  extension  Paris  itself 
was  hardly  larger.  Its  site  was  one  of  the  most 
picturesque  of  the  whole  earth,  made  of  the  space 
between  the  Orontes  and  the  slopes  of  Silpius. 
Unrivalled  were  the  beauty  and  the  abundance  of 
its  waters.  Nature  had  fortified  it  as  by  a  master- 
piece of  military  art,  surrounded  as  it  was  by  lofty 
rocks,  which  crowned  it  with  a  radiating  circlet  of 
peaks.  Thence  were  afforded  surprising  perspec- 
tives :  one  beheld  within  the  walls  hills  not  less 
than  seven  hundred  feet  high,  great  rocks  bristling 
with  spires,  precipices,  inaccessible  caves,  torrents 
and  cascades  rushing  into  deep  ravines,  where  de- 
licious gardens  nestled.  Here  were  dense  thickets 
of  myrtles,  of  flowering  box,  of  laurels  and  ever- 
greens, of  which  the  verdure  was  most  tender,  and 
rocks  embroidered  with  pinks,  hyacinths,  and  cycla- 
mens, which  gave  their  savage  summits  the  effect 
of  hanging  gardens.  Such  was  the  Antioch  of 
Libanius,  of  Julian,  of  Chrysostom. 
1  See  Note  O. 


44  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Here  the  imperial  legate  of  Syria  kept  his  court. 
The  Seleucid  kings  raised  it  from  nothing,  and 
like  the  growth  of  a  single  night,  to  a  lofty  pitch 
of  splendour,  but  the  Roman  occupation  had  glori- 
fied it  even  more.  The  Seleucids  had  indeed  set 
the  example  of  decorating  cities  with  theatrical 
effect,  multiplying  baths,  basilicas,  aqueducts,  and 
temples.  The  streets,  more  symmetrical  and  regu- 
lar than  elsewhere,  were  bordered  with  colonnades, 
and  at  their  intersections  adorned  with  statues. 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  had  carried  through  the  city, 
stretching  three  miles  from  end  to  end,  a  superb 
Corso,  ornamented  by  columns,  in  four  rows,  which 
made  covered  galleries  on  both  sides,  with  the 
broad  avenue  between.  But,  besides  its  huge 
constructions  of  public  utility,  Antioch  was  dis- 
tinguished above  other  Syrian  cities  by  its  pos- 
session of  masterpieces  of  Greek  art,  —  admirable 
statues,  and  delicate  specimens  of  classic  taste,  of 
which  at  this  epoch  the  refined  perfections  could 
no  longer  be  imitated.  Into  this  region  of  the 
Orontes,  the  Macedonians,  transplanted  by  Seleu- 
cus  Nicator  from  Antigonia,  had  brought  the  wor- 
ship and  the  territorial  names  of  their  own  land, 
lasting  memorials  of  their  attachment  to  Paeonia 
and  Pieria,  and  to  "the  fair  humanities"  adored 
at  Castaly  and  in  the  Vale  of  Tempe.  Thus  the 
Greek  myths  gained  a  new  creation  and  new  seats 
of  worship  in  Syria.  Phoebus  and  the  Muses  were 
part  of  the  population  of  the  city,  —  in  mute  mar- 
ble, it  is  true,  but  seeming  to  live  and  breathe,  as  in 
fact  they  inspired  the  surrounding  masses  of  flesh 
and  blood.    As  a  retreat  from  the  bustling  market, 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES 


45 


Daphne  opened  to  its  inhabitants  an  enchanting 
grove  where  the  most  charming  fictions  of  the 
Greek  poets  were  brought  to  the  minds  of  the 
Orientals.  Here  the  wretched  Julian  was  destined 
long  afterwards  to  make  a  last  desperate  effort  to 
heal  the  death-wound  of  idolatry.  The  spot  was  a 
practical  plagiarism;  counterfeiting  a  plan  of  the 
nomadic  tribes,  who  originally  brought  names  to 
Berecyntia,  Ida,  and  Olympus.  Altogether,  the 
fables  of  outworn  heathenism  made  up  for  the 
place  a  religion  hardly  more  serious  than  the  Met- 
amorphoses of  Ovid.  Girdled  by  the  river,  Mount 
Casius  lifted  to  the  skies  altars  and  idols,  the  graver 
relics  of  indigenous  superstition.  This  spot  was 
doomed  to  retain  its  hold  on  local  enthusiasm  when 
surrounding  idols  should  give  way  before  the  Light, 
and  to  smoke  with  the  last  faint  whiffs  of  incense 
that  symbolized  expiring  Paganism.  In  short,  the 
Syrian  frivolity,  Babylonian  quackery,  and  all  the 
impostures  of  Asia,  muddled  and  confused  at  this 
meeting-point  of  two  worlds,  had  made  of  Antioch 
a  sewer  of  infamies.    It  was  the  metropolis  of  Lies. 

5.     THE   POPULACE. 

The  Syrian  tongue  was  yet  to  be  heard  among 
its  aborigines,  infesting  its  faubourgs  and  forming 
the  suburban  population  of  a  vast  vicinity.  By  a 
law  of  Seleucus,  all  resident  aliens  were  made  citi- 
zens, and  by  intermarriages  with  Greeks  his  capi- 
tal at  the  close  of  three  centuries  and  a  half  was 
the  place  of  all  the  world  in  which  the  human  race 
seemed  most  effectually  hybridized.     The  consc- 


46  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

quent  debasement  of  minds  was  frightful.  In  such 
a  process,  divers  races  lead  downward  to  a  com- 
mon estate  of  moral  putrefaction.  Hardly  do  we 
find  a  parallel  corruption  in  the  basest  of  those 
Levantine  marts,  which  we  see  given  over  to  ideas 
the  most  base  and  selfish,  and  tied  hand  and  foot  by 
the  intrigues  of  tyranny.  It  was  an  incredible  jum- 
ble of  buffoons  and  quacks,  drolls  and  tricksters, 
wonder-workers,  sorcerers,  and  juggling  priests, — 
a  bazaar  of  races  and  ballet-dances,  pomps  and  pro- 
cessions, Saturnalian  feasts  and  Bacchanalian  orgies, 
of  luxury  and  lust  unbridled,  of  fanatical  outrages 
and  superstitions  the  most  pestilent,  —  in  a  word,  of 
all  the  follies  of  the  Oriental  world.  Obsequious 
to  servility  and  then  again  basely  ungrateful,  at 
times  cowards  and  then  impudently  rebellious,  the 
population  was  thoroughly  a  specimen  of  hordes 
enslaved  to  Csesarism,  with  no  name  to  preserve  or 
lose,  without  family  character,  without  nationality, 
without  country.  Its  grand  Corso  was  a  circus, 
through  which  flowed  all  day  long  the  foul  tides 
of  a  brute  populace,  light,  volatile,  always  ready 
for  an  outbreak,  sometimes  clever  enough,  how- 
ever, to  be  absorbed  by  diversions  of  music,  by 
harlequins  and  their  farces,  by  ambiguities,  jokes, 
and  impertinences  of  every  sort.  Cicero  affects  to 
credit  them  with  a  literary  spirit,  but  it  was  a 
mere  literature  of  spurious  rhetoricians.  The  pub- 
lic shows  were  curious.  The  entire  spectacle  was 
made  palatable  to  such  a  crowd  by  exhibitions  of 
nudity ;  naked  girls  sharing  in  all  the  performances, 
with  a  mere  fillet  on  their  shameless  foreheads. 
St.  Chrysostom  has  denounced  their  favorite  Mai- 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      47 

ouma,  where  troops  of  prostitutes  showed  them- 
selves swimming  in  nakedness,  with  wanton  display, 
in  vast  reservoirs  filled  with  crystal  waters.  It 
was  an  inebriation  of  debauch,  a  revcry  of  Sarda- 
napalus,  where  all  manner  of  indecencies,  the  worse 
for  a  certain  simulation  of  refinement,  were  tum- 
bled together  pell-mell,  in  voluptuous  contempt  of 
ordinary  pretences  to  propriety.  Such  was  the 
Antioch  which  Juvenal,  perhaps  justly,  accuses  as 
the  source  of  Roman  degeneracy,  —  of  those  abom- 
inations which  he  deplores;  which  St.  Paul,  on 
widely  different  grounds,  bewails,  and  to  which, 
with  inimitable  condensation,  he  administers  his 
scathing  rebuke.     Yes,  indeed,  says  the  satirist,1 

"  The  Syrian  Orontes,  at  last,  makes  the  Tiber  the  mouth  of  its 
vomit ; 
Here  comes,  with  its  flutes  and  its  strings,  a  jargon  of  tongues 
with  all  evils." 

"  The  valley  of  the  Orontes,"  says  Renan,  "  open- 
ing to  the  west,  gives  the  neighbouring  lake  an  out- 
let to  the  sea;  or,  to  be  more  exact,  enables  the 
city  to  communicate  with  the  vast  world  beyond, 
where  the  Mediterranean  lies  embedded,  and  where, 
through  all  the  ages,  it  has  afforded  to  the  sur- 
rounding nations  a  neutral  highway,  and  a  bond  of 
federal  unity  as  well." 

6.     THE   JEWISH   ELEMENT. 

To  approach  my  subject,  and  to  illustrate  the  de- 
cisive fact  which  fitted  Antioch  to  become,  through 
the  Mediterranean,  the  starting-point  for  Christian 
1  See  Note  P. 


48  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

missions,  I  must  strictly  translate  from  Renan,  and 
borrow  his  condensed  and  most  suggestive  para- 
graph about  the  Jews. 

"They  were  among  the  most  numerous  of  those  colo- 
nies which  the  liberal  policy  of  the  Seleucids  attracted  to 
their  metropolis.  Their  immigration  started  with  Seleucus 
Nicator's  grant  of  equal  privileges  with  the  Greeks.  They 
had  an  ethnarch  of  their  own,  but  not  less  were  their  rela- 
tions very  intimate  with  their  Gentile  co-citizens.  Here, 
as  at  Alexandria,  it  is  true,  these  relations  were  occasion- 
ally interrupted  by  strifes  and  mutual  aggressions  ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  they  afforded  a  base  for  proselyting,  which 
the  Jews  knew  how  to  make  very  lively.  More  and  more 
was  polytheism  proving  itself  unsatisfactory  to  all  reflect- 
ing minds,  and  Greek  philosophy  in  common  with  Juda- 
ism was  attractive  to  those  incapable  of  resting  in  the 
empty  pomps  of  an  effete  mythology.  The  number  of 
Jewish  proselytes  was  considerable.  Nicolas,  a  proselyte 
of  Antioch,  was  enrolled  among  the  seven  deacons.  Here 
were  the  germs  of  a  harvest,  which  waited  only  for  the 
day-beams  of  grace  to  blossom  and  bring  forth  fruits  more 
beautiful  than  mankind  had  ever  seen  before." 1 

One  recognizes  here  the  hand  of  God  in  the 
mission  and  work  of  Alexander:  Antioch,  with  its 
Jewish  colony  and  its  traffic  with  the  West  through 
Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  as  well  as  Alexandria  with 
its  library  and  its  schools,  had  been  fashioned 
beforehand  for  the  Evangelists  and  Apostles. 

7.    THE  CHURCH  IN  ANTIOCH. 

In  the  spring  of  A.  D.  43,  just  ten  years  after  the 
Light  of  the  World  had  been  despised  and  rejected 
1  See  Note  Q. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      49 

of  men,  all  things  were  ready  for  a  fresh  outpour- 
ing of  the  Spirit.  Barnabas  found  Saul  at  Tarsus, 
and  brought  him  from  his  native  shores  to  this  An- 
tioch,  where  the  little  church  was  sheltered,  in  its 
obscurity  and  feebleness,  in  a  poor  quarter  under 
the  hill  Stavrin,  and  near  a  gate  which  sustains 
the  Christian  tradition  by  its  time-honoured  name 
of  St.  Paul's  gate.  It  was  "  in  Singon  Street  hard 
by  the  Pantheon."  Among  the  believers  here, 
fulfilling  their  local  mission  against  such  frightful 
odds  of  evil  in  the  very  citadel  of  Satan,  imagine 
the  effect  of  the  appearance  of  these  twins,  Bar- 
nabas and  Saul :  the  one  with  those  massive  and 
majestic  traits  which  led  the  heathen  to  suppose 
him  Zeus ;  the  other  with  that  light  and  active 
motion  and  electrifying  voice  which  the  same 
rustic  idolaters  could  only  identify  with  Hermes. 
They  came  to  make  the  lily  of  gospel  purity  spring 
forth  and  shed  its  fragrance  over  the  world  out 
of  a  dunghill  of  pollution. 

8.  THE  EXCEPTIONAL  APOSTOLATE. 

The  exceptional  addition  to  the  choir  of  original 
Apostles  of  these  twain,  born  out  of  due  time,  de- 
serves a  passing  note  of  explanation.  St.  Paul  was 
created  an  Apostle  by  Christ  himself  in  person ; 
Barnabas,  by  Christ,  through  his  Vicar,  the  Holy 
Ghost.  To  confer  their  "  Mission  "  and  attest  their 
apostleship  to  the  churches  was  yet  a  logical  neces- 
sity; but  had  even  this  been  done  by  other  apos- 
tles, they  might  seem  to  have  been  commissioned, 
if  not  "  by  men,"  yet  at  least  "  through   men " ; 

4 


5<D  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

they  would  have  been,  not  founders  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Succession,  but  only  its  earliest  recipients. 
Certain  inspired  prophets  were  therefore,  by  an 
oracle  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  directed  to  do  for  Barna- 
bas and  Saul  what  the  fiery  tongues  of  Pentecost 
had  done  for  Matthias.  By  an  exceptional  laying 
on  of  hands  they  conferred,  not  the  "order"  of 
apostles,  but  the  "  mission "  to  which  their  apos- 
tolic work  was  designated.  The  ordinals  of  Apos- 
tolic Churches  have  preserved  this  distinction :  first 
orders  and  then  jurisdiction  are  conferred  in  the 
rites  of  ordination.  Barnabas  seems  to  have  been 
made  St.  Paul's  coadjutor;  but  the  pupil  of  Gama- 
liel was  sent  out  with  the  world  for  his  field.  This 
mission  of  the  Spirit  was  afterwards  accepted  by 
James,  Peter,  and  John,  when  they  "  gave  to  Paul 
and  Barnabas  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,"  x  and 
recognized  the  several  jurisdictions  proper  to  St. 
Peter  and  to  St.  Paul :  the  former  restricted  in  mis- 
sion to  the  Circumcision,  while  to  the  latter  was 
assigned  an  unbounded  mission  to  the  Gentiles. 
And  it  is  most  instructive  to  observe  how  strictly 
St.  Paul  adhered  to  this  "  canon,"  2  as  he  calls  it,  in 
all  his  ministrations. 

9.    APOSTOLIC   INSTITUTIONS. 

To  the  inspired  narrative  of  events  at  Antioch  I 
must  refer  you  for  further  subjects  of  great  inter- 
est touching  the  early  institutions  and  constitu- 
tions of  Christianity.  But  it  remains  to  note  them 
as  reflected  in  this  school  after  the  Apostles  had 
1  Gal.  ii.  9.  2  2  Cor.  x.  13-16. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      51 

fallen  asleep.  When  the  Council  of  Nice  cited 
"the  ancient  customs"  as  the  normal  example  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  Antioch  was  the  great  origi- 
nal to  which  their  testimony  necessarily  reverted. 
Happily,  we  possess  in  our  day  a  wealth  of  mate- 
rial for  deciding  what  this  primitive  school  re- 
ceived and  taught,  such  as  has  never  before  been 
enjoyed  for  many  centuries.  The  brilliant  light 
which  has  been  concentrated  upon  it  by  the  learn- 
ing and  genius  of  Lightfoot  has  closed  a  long 
period  of  controversies  excited  by  the  interests 
which  all  modern  schools  feel  to  be  at  stake  when 
their  tenets  and  teachings  are  referred  to  it  as  a 
test.  Its  great  martyr  bishop,  Ignatius,  had  seen 
St.  John;  in  all  probability  had  been  his  disciple. 
Under  Trajan  he  was  thrown  to  the  lions  in  the 
Flavian  Amphitheatre.  His  Epistles,  sifted  to  the 
bran  in  a  prolonged  and  unparalleled  controversy, 
are  now  in  our  hands  in  their  genuine  form,  and 
furnish  us  with  a  mirror  of  the  virgin  Church  in  its 
manners,  its  ordinances,  and  its  doctrines.  No- 
body is  fit  to  discuss  the  principles  of  unity  and 
catholicity  who  has  not  studied  the  Scriptures  in 
the  reflected  light  of  what  Ignatius  shows  to  have 
been  the  ordinances  of  inspired  wisdom.  But  his 
practical  maxims  are  like  "the  goads  and  nails" 
of  Solomon  himself.  Some  of  them  lose  little  by 
translation,  so  pungent  are  they  and  so  senten- 
tious. To  Polycarp  he  bequeaths  his  mantle,  like 
another  Elijah  going  up  in  a  fiery  car  and  drop- 
ping his  raiment  on  Elisha.  "  The  times  demand 
thee"  he  says  to  his  successor,  "  as  pilots  seek 
the  haven."     Would  God  we  more  nearly  resem- 


52  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

bled  Ignatius  and  his  faithful  contemporaries, 
among  whom  Polycarp  is  chief,  in  their  zeal  for 
truth,  their  sanctity  of  life,  and  their  fidelity  even 
unto  death  to  our  Master,  Christ;  but,  so  far  as 
the  conformities  of  the  Anglican  Church  to  an 
apostolic  original  are  concerned,  we  may  rejoice 
indeed  that  the  church  of  Antioch,  as  Ignatius 
portrays  it,  is  the  triumphant  vindication  of  our 
Anglican  reformers  and  their  work  of  restoration 
in  the  sixteenth  century. 


io.     APOSTOLIC    FATHERS.  — IGNATIUS. 

Though  it  is  much  later  that  Antioch  assumes  a 
leading  place  as  a  school,  we  associate  it  with  the 
lead  in  Christian  literature,  as  the  source  of  "  the 
Apostolic  Fathers."  Of  Melito  and  Clement  of 
Rome,  the  earliest  of  whom  we  have  genuine  re- 
mains, I  shall  speak  by  and  by.  The  venerable 
Ignatius,  on  his  way  to  martyrdom  at  Rome,  and 
all  the  way  "  fighting  with  beasts,"  as  he  describes 
it,  with  reference  to  the  rude  soldiers  that  guarded 
him,  wrote  letters  to  the  churches,  and  also  to 
Polycarp,  "  angel  of  the  church  of  Smyrna,"  his 
compeer  and  coeval  in  the  school  of  the  Apostles, 
which  are  among  the  choicest  treasures  of  an- 
tiquity. To  think  of  such  a  good  thing  coming  so 
early  out  of  Antioch !  In  vain  may  we  search  all 
heathen  moralists  for  the  lofty,  unselfish  philoso- 
phy which  breathes  in  every  sentiment  of  Ignatius, 
and  inspires  those  inimitable  maxims.  Here  are 
specimens,  taken  chiefly  from  the  single  epistle 
to  Polycarp:    I.  "Consider  the  times,  but  look  to 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      53 

Him  who  is  above  time."  2.  "  A  Christian  is  not 
his  own  master,  but  waits  upon  God."  3.  "  Slight 
not  the  slaves  and  the  maid-servants."  4.  "  Find 
time  to  pray  without  ceasing."  5.  "The  crown 
is  immortality."  6.  "  Stand  like  a  beaten  anvil ; 
it  is  the  part  of  a  good  athlete  to  be  bruised, 
and  to  prevail."  x  His  subsequent  suffering  in 
the  Coliseum,  under  the  persecution  which  dis- 
graces the  name  of  Trajan,  whetted  the  appetite 
of  the  Roman  populace  for  Christian  blood.  It 
begot  the  common  outcry  of  the  amphitheatre, 
Christianos  ad  hones !  Under  Hadrian  and  the 
Antonines  the  chronic  sacrifices  of  Christians  called 
forth  a  new  form  of  patristic  literature  known  as 
the  "  Apologies,"  of  which  the  earlier  specimens 
have  perished,  but  of  which  we  have  examples  in 
the  precious  writings  of  Justin  Martyr. 

11.    JUSTIN   MARTYR. 

He  was  a  native  of  Samaria,  though  a  Greek 
and  a  philosopher ;  but  Jacob's  well  was  near  his 
native  town,  and  he  seems  to  have  drawn  his  in- 
spiration as  a  Christian  from  the  water  of  life  that 
has  never  ceased  to  flow  ever  since  the  weary 
Jesus  sat  by  it  and  discoursed  with  the  woman. 
This  appears  in  his  "  Dialogues  with  Trypho,"  a 
Jew  whom  he  laboured  to  convert;  but  not  less 
conspicuously  in  his  Apologies,  addressed  to  the 
sons  of  Hadrian.  These  princes  were  professed 
philosophers,  and  Justin  addressed  them  as  one 
who  had  a  right  to  be  heard.  He  had  been  a 
1  See  Note  R. 


54  INSTITUTES   OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

student  of  the  Athenian  schools,  and  his  pure 
eclecticism  had  made  him  a  Platonist.  One  won- 
ders who  may  have  been  that  unknown  saint  of 
meek  and  reverend  aspect  whom  he  met  walking 
by  the  sea-side,  and  who  first  taught  him  the  better 
philosophy  of  Him  who  is  the  Light  of  the  World. 
Unknown  as  he  is,  he  lives  in  the  illustrious  pupil 
whom  he  led  to  Jesus,  and  who  wore  his  philoso- 
pher's pallium  not  the  less  when  he  became  a 
disciple  of  what  he  had  discovered  to  be  the  only 
philosophy  worth  professing.  In  his  writings,  we 
become  acquainted  with  the  Christians  of  the  first 
post-apostolic  age,  and  blessed  be  their  pure  exam- 
ple. The  philosopher  addressed  his  first  Apology 
to  Antoninus  Pius  (A.  D.  150),  whose  reputation 
is  not  unstained  by  the  wanton  effusion  of  Chris- 
tian blood;1  his  second,  to  "the  good  Aurelius," 
as  Pope  styles  him,  —  brutal  stoic  though  he  was, 
and  author  of  a  general  persecution  which  raged 
through  the  Empire  from  the  Tigris  to  the  Rhone, 
desolating  the  churches,  and  delivering  men,  women, 
and  children  to  wild  beasts,  to  the  sword,  and  to 
the  flames,  in  every  imaginable  form  of  cruelty 
and  torture.  Under  Aurelius,  Justin  earned  his 
noble  surname  of  the  Martyr,  and  soon  after  him 
suffered  Melito,  Bishop  of  Sardis,  of  whose  works 
a  valuable  fragment  remains.2 

1  See  Lightfoot,  Apost.  Fathers,  II.,  vol.  i.  p.  440. 

2  Lightfoot,  Ibid.,  pp.  445.  446- 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      55 

12.     THE   PERSECUTIONS. 

Behold,  young  men,  what  the  Church  means  by 
"  the  noble  army  of  martyrs."  This  was  the  fourth 
persecution,  and  six  more  must  be ;  though  in  fact 
the  first  three  centuries  are  one  protracted  period 
of  war  against  the  followers  of  the  Crucified,  which 
began  with  Herod's  slaughter  of  the  Innocents,  and 
stayed  not  till  the  Arch  of  Constantine  was  set  up 
to  commemorate  the  first  peace.  The  Apologists 
imply  the  martyrs.     Their  blood  was  "  the  seed  of 

the  Church  "  ;  but 

"  Their  ashes  flew 
No  marble  tells  us  whither ;  with  their  names 
No  bard  embalms  and  sanctifies  his  song, 
And  history,  so  warm  on  meaner  themes, 
Is  cold  on  this." 

The  fury  of  their  adversaries  drove  the  sufferers 
like  "  conies  to  the  stony  rocks,"  to  the  deserts,  to 
the  catacombs.  They  were  scorned  for  burrowing 
like  the  marmot,  and  were  derided  as  "  shunners  of 
daylight."  Light-shunning  yet  light-shedding ;  to 
them  the  ages  and  the  nations  that  call  themselves 
enlightened  owe  all  their  illumination.  They  were 
the  victims  of  those  who  made  "  Philosophy  "  their 
boast. 

13.     POLYCARP. 

The  hoary  and  holy  Polycarp  suffered  under  that 
paragon  of  "  philosophic  "  princes,  the  elder  Anto- 
nine.1     He  was  the  disciple  of  St.  John,  and  was 

1  A.  D.  155.  See  Lightfoot's  elaborate  evidence,  and  his  some- 
what successful  relief  of  Hadrian's  reputation.  Ibid.,  pp.  440,  492, 
and  628-702. 


$6  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

probably  the  Bishop  of  Smyrna  to  whom  our 
Divine  Master  sends  his  prophetic  promise  of  the 
martyr's  crown  in  the  Apocalypse.  His  pupil, 
Irenaeus,  tells  us  how  he  used  to  speak  of  the  be- 
loved disciple,  and  of  "  others  who  had  seen  the 
Lord." 

We  must  reflect  that  while  St.  John  survived, 
after  his  return  from  exile,  Ephesus  was  tempora- 
rily the  focus  of  apostolic  illumination.  If  "old 
wives'  fables"  were  to  be  heeded,  the  obscure  Eva- 
ristus,  Bishop  of  Rome,  was  St.  John's  superior, 
and  had  settled  "  who  should  be  greatest,"  as 
Christ  himself  did  not,  by  claiming  from  St.  Peter 
a  principality  over  the  glorious  survivor  of  Zebe- 
dee's  children  !  Nothing  of  the  kind  disgraces  the 
true  history  of  Evaristus.  Down  to  the  first  or 
second  year  of  the  second  century  the  beloved 
disciple  "  tarried,"  as  his  Master  had  said,  prolong- 
ing the  age  of  the  Messiah,  and  sealing  the  canon 
of  the  New  Testament.  Nor  while  Polycarp  sur- 
vived, to  whom  Christ  himself  had  spoken  in  his 
message  to  the  churches,  could  the  apostolic  age 
be  regarded  as  ended.  To  him  Anicetus  deferred, 
and  rendered  homage  at  Rome.  The  date  of  his 
martyrdom  closes  the  period  which,  in  strict  reck- 
oning, is  that  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers.  As  a 
school,  the  see  of  Antioch  comes  subsequently  into 
view,  and  its  consummate  flower  is  Chrysostom, 
the  great  primate  of  Constantinople,  the  golden- 
mouthed  John. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      57 

14.     PRIMITIVE   SCHOOLS.  — ALEXANDRIA. 

Of  the  primitive  schools  the  see  of  Alexandria 
was  the  first,  and  stands  without  rival,  or  even  one 
that  can  pretend  to  be  its  second.  It  may  owe  its 
foundation  to  the  catechetical  classes  of  Apollos ;  1 
Theophilus  may  not  improbably  have  received  his 
first  instructions  there ;  it  ceased  not  to  shed  over 
the  Christendom  of  three  centuries  the  all-animat- 
ing inspiration  of  its  theology ;  and  to  it  we  owe  the 
master  spirit  of  that  great  Council  of  Nicaea,  Atha- 
nasius,  its  burning  and  shining  light.  Here  we 
find  the  genius  of  Clement,  and  the  untiring  toil  of 
Origen,  and  the  labours  of  others  not  unworthy  to 
be  named  with  them,  who  for  centuries  maintained 
a  divine  mastery  over  Christian  thought  applied  to 
the  exposition  of  the  Scriptures.  We  must  reflect 
that  its  early  relations  with  Antioch  were  intimate, 
and  pupils  of  Polycarp  were  probably  enrolled  in 
its  schools ; 2  while,  not  unreasonably,  we  may  ad- 
mit that  St.  Mark  was  its  first  bishop,  and  made  it 
"the  Evangelical  See."  It  framed  the  primitive 
testimony  into  literature,  and  gave  it  symbolic  and 
liturgic  idioms.  From  voices  attuned  in  her  choirs 
sounds  forth  the  organ-music  of  the  Great  Con- 
fession, —  that  anthem-like  roll  and  swell  of  the 
successive  utterances  of  the  Nicene  Creed.  That 
"  clothing  of  wrought  gold  "  which  adorns  the  Bride 
of  the  Lamb  was  wrought,  as  in  a  loom,  at  the  feet 
of  her  Gamaliels.  Truly,  if  "  a  mother  and  mis- 
tress of  churches "  ever  existed,  we  must  find  in 

1  My  reasons  may  be  seen  in  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  vi.  p.  236. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  166,  and  vol.  viii.  p.  796. 


58  INSTITUTES   OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Alexandria  the  only  see  to  which  antiquity  makes 
any  such  award.  When  it  comes  into  notice,  under 
Pantaenus,  it  is  already  a  Christian  university.  He 
is  called  "  the  Sicilian  bee,"  and,  lured  by  the  scent 
of  flowers  sweeter  than  those  of  Enna,  he  flew  from 
its  fair  fields  to  the  Alexandrian  storehouse  where 
honey  was  dropping  from  the  comb.  Under  him 
it  became  a  beehive  indeed,  and,  if  it  be  not  over- 
working the  metaphor,  it  had  no  drones ;  all  were 
workers  and  soldiers,  among  whom  Truth  was 
queen  and  mother  both.  Its  cells  were  stored  with 
scriptural  nectar,  and  its  great  doctor,  Clement,  has 
immortalized  its  spirit  in  the  wit  by  which  he  spake. 
His  sayings,  to  pursue  the  figure  merrily,  are  speci- 
mens alike  of  sweets  and  of  stings.  How  uncloying 
the  flavour  of  his  words  about  Jesus !  how  keen 
and  pungent  his  conflict  with  false  philosophy  and 
untruth !  They  writhe  and  perish  like  summer 
moths,  pierced  by  his  winged  words  and  fanned 
by  their  airy  impulse  into  oblivion.1 

15.     MANY   DOCTORS.  — ATHANASIUS. 

I  have  time  only  to  name  the  bright  succession 
of  doctors  who  adorned  the  see  of  St.  Mark,  like 
those  apocalyptic  stars  which  Christ  held  in  his  own 
right  hand.  To  Pantaenus,  and  Clement,  and  the 
colossal  figure  of  Origen,  succeed  Gregory  Thau- 
maturgus,  Heraclas,  Dionysius  the  Great,  Julius 
Africanus,  Anatolius,  and  Alexander  of  Cappado- 
cia,  with  whom  the  sub-apostolic  period  expired  in 
the  Decian  persecution.     Theognostus,  a  pupil  of 

1  See  Note  S. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      59 

Origen,  and  Pierius,  who  is  called  "  Origen  Junior  " 
by  St.  Jerome,  with  Theonas,  Philcas,  Pamphilus, 
Peter  the  Canonist,  and  Alexander,  the  patron  of 
Athanasius,  carry  on  the  brilliant  succession.  And 
these  illustrious  names,  every  one,  have  planetary 
lustres  revolving  about  them;  while,  all  together, 
they  shine  as  the  firmament,  till  the  day  dawns 
and  the  sunlight  of  the  Gospel  breaks  over  all  the 
world.  Then  appears  Athanasius,  "  clothed  with 
the  sun,"  —  he  who  afterwards  stood  "against  the 
world,"  —  Athanasius,  in  whose  great  heart  the 
Catholic  faith  found  shelter  for  a  moment  while 
others  forsook  it  and  fled,  —  but  only  to  break 
forth,  when  "  the  fire  kindled  and  he  spake  with 
his  tongue  "  the  "  truths  that  wake  to  perish  never." 
Even  in  our  own  vain  and  self-asserting  times,  it 
has  been  conceded  that  the  treasures  of  Alexan- 
drian Christianity  are  a  forecast  of  modern  thought, 
and  must  still  continue  to  enrich  the  universe.1 


16.     THE   PUNIC  SCHOOL.  — TERTULLIAN  AND 
CYPRIAN. 

Carthage,  like  a  candlestick  of  many  branches, 
borrows  its  lustre  from  the  Alexandrian  Pharos. 
This  appears  in  Tertullian,  who  teaches  in  crabbed 
Latin,  but  with  original  force  and  perspicuity,  what 
he  learned  in  Greek.  Here  begins  "  Latin  Chris- 
tianity" ;  here  first  we  find  a  "  Western  theology," 
which  became  anthropology  rather,  and  which 
lives  on  and  works  yet,  and  ever  will  work  among 
men,  in  the  master  spirit  of  Augustine.  To  Ter- 
1  See  Note  T. 


60         INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

tullian,  erratic  genius  as  he  was,  must  be  attri- 
buted this  marvellous  creation,  the  illustrious  Punic 
school.  But  it  took  shape  under  Cyprian,  who  rec- 
ognized his  obligations  to  his  masterly  predeces- 
sor, delighted  to  pay  him  honour  as  the  autocrat 
of  his  thought,  and  rectified  his  mistakes,  throwing 
a  mantle  over  his  faults.  To  Cyprian  must  be 
attributed  the  clearest  exposition  of  the  primitive 
polity  to  be  found  in  history.  He  builds  up  the 
system  of  Ignatius,  as  Ignatius  reflects  it  from 
the  Scriptures.  To  him  we  owe  the  ideal  of  the 
Episcopate,  as  the  primitive  Christians  had  re- 
ceived it;  and  through  all  his  writings  breathes 
the  spirit  of  St.  Peter,  imploring  the  clergy  not 
to  make  themselves  "  lords  over  God's  heritage." 
Intrepid  in  vindicating  his  order,  uncompromising 
in  maintaining  the  autonomy  of  national  churches, 
this  noble  confessor  and  martyr  is  yet  the  text- 
book of  the  laity  who  wish  to  know  their  place 
and  privileges  in  the  Church.  I  love  his  free 
spirit ;  the  great  synodical  features  of  Catholic  pol- 
ity of  which  he  is  the  champion ;  the  maxims 
which  he  has  left  to  Christendom.  He  is  the 
great  "  Anglican  "  of  antiquity,  if  I  may  anachronize 
so  boldly.  To  his  system,  rightly  understood,  we 
of  the  Anglican  communion  may  boldly  refer  our 
cause,  as  against  Pope  and  Puritan.  I  love  St. 
Cyprian.  He  finds  a  modern  counterpart  in  our 
own  Bishop  Bull.  Must  I  merely  mention  the 
noble  names  that  are  entwined  with  his  in  the 
creation  of  Latin  thought?  Study  for  yourselves 
the  works  of  Minucius  Felix,  of  Commodian,  of 
Arnobius  and  Lactantius. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  ACES.      6 1 

17.     ARNOBIUS   AND   LACTANTIUS. 

Nor  let  any  accept  the  unjust  judgment  of  Cole- 
ridge about  Arnobius,  in  whom  we  have  a  great  lay- 
man, like  himself,  not  half  as  faulty,  and  quite  as 
praiseworthy.1  His  scornful  rhetoric  was  privileged 
to  chase  the  hosts  of  heathenism,  already  con- 
quered, and  to  put  them  to  an  ignominious  rout. 
He  mocks  them,  like  another  Elijah  dealing  with 
Baalim;  he  pursues  them  with  the  artillery  of  his 
genius,  as  they  flee  before  him,  — 

"  Chased  on  their  night-steeds  by  the  star  of  day." 

And  so  we  reach  Lactantius,  —  dear  Lactantius ! 
I  feel  as  if  I  had  known  him  personally.  He 
emerges,  with  the  persecuted  Church,  from  the 
Diocletian  persecution,  like  gold  tried  in  the  fire. 
In  him,  we  meet  the  earliest  Christian  who  has 
leisure  to  cultivate  his  style.  He  adorns  the  court 
of  Constantine ;  he  wins  the  title  of  the  Christian 
Cicero ;  he  closes  the  blessed  march  of  the  Ante- 
Nicene  legions,  and  his  flourish  of  trumpets  is  not 
of  "  sounding  brass."  We  hear  the  silver  trumpets 
of  the  angels  in  his  notes  of  triumph.  Less  har- 
monious than  his  other  writings  is  his  account 
of  the  persecutors  and  their  retributive  deaths. 
Gibbon,  indeed,  affects  to  doubt  if  it  be  his ;  but 
the  fascination  of  those  pages  is  created,  not  by 
their  style,  but  by  the  downright  honest  words,  in 
which  they  give  the  testimony  of  one  who  seems 
to  say,  — 

"  All  which  I  saw,  and  part  of  which  I  was." 

1  See  Note  U. 


62  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

18.     MAXIMS   OF   LACTANTIUS. 

Let  me  add,  young  gentlemen,  if  you  would 
know  why  I  speak  so  warmly  of  Lactantius,  two  of 
his  maxims  which  became  dear  to  me  in  early 
life:  would  that  I  might  transfer  them  to  you,  to 
make  a  better  use  of  them  than  I  have  done.  I 
can  only  atone  for  my  failure  by  urging  you  to 
catch  from  them  the  inspiration  of  a  future  which 
you  may  render  tributary  to  God's  glory  and  to 
the  good  of  mankind.  "  If  life  is  to  be  desired  by 
a  wise  man,"  says  this  charming  instructor,  "truly 
for  no  other  reason  could  I  wish  to  live  than  to 
effect  something  worthy  of  a  lifetime."  Again, 
he  says :  "  I  shall  judge  myself  to  have  lived 
satisfactorily,  and  to  have  fulfilled  the  duty  of 
manhood,  if  only  my  efforts  may  liberate  some 
from  error,  and  direct  them  into  the  heavenly 
way." 

19.     HARMONY   OF  THEOLOGIANS. 

And  so  must  end  my  insufficient  testimony  to 
the  school  of  Carthage,  while  I  point  you  forward 
to  its  noblest  example,  in  the  imperial  genius  of 
Augustine.  Vainly  have  recent  writers  tried  to  set 
him  over  against  Athanasius,  as  an  antagonist,  not 
a  helper.1  Brain  and  heart,  heart  and  brain :  do 
they  conflict,  or  harmonize,  because  their  functions 
are  so  diverse?  In  the  attempts  of  the  West  to 
fathom  the  mystery  of  the  Human,  we  find  the 
complement  of  what  the  East  had  done  to  illus- 
trate the  Divine.  The  Alexandrians  understood, 
1  See  Note  V. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      G$ 

however,  that  the  Infinite  was  past  finding  out:  the 
genius  of  the  great  Bishop  of  Hippo  shrank  from 
no  investigation  of  humanity,  felt  no  similar  re- 
straints. He  paused,  indeed,  to  take  breath,  and 
went  no  further;  but  just  there  the  remorseless 
genius  of  Calvin  found  his  task  incomplete,  and 
scrupled  not  to  give  it  a  logical  conclusion.  It 
was  a  test  of  strength  and  courage  not  inferior  to 
Samson's ;  it  was  on  a  larger  scale,  and  involved 
even  more  terrible  consequences,  than  "  the  wreck 
of  matter  and  the  crush  of  worlds."  Warned  by 
this  experiment,  we  may  accept  Augustine,  while 
we  reject  the  Epimetheus  that  ventured  further. 
To  Augustine  we  owe  the  true  exposition  of  the 
doctrines  of  grace,  though  the  Church  has  only 
accepted  it  filtered  from  the  lees.  In  his  immor- 
tal works  and  the  immense  literature  they  have 
created,  Carthage  still  asserts  her  moral  grandeur, 
though  bats  and  owls  infest  and  hoot  where  Marius 
once  sat  among  her  ruins. 


20.    THE  ROMAN   DIOCESE. 

If  I  have  not  yet  noted  among  Christian  schools 
even  in  the  West  that  see  which  claims  to  be  "  the 
mother  and  mistress  of  churches,"  it  is  only  be- 
cause the  facts  compel  me  to  say  nothing  where 
nothing  can  be  said.  Her  first  bishop,  St.  Clem- 
ent, indeed,  leads  the  noble  array  of  the  Apostolic 
Fathers ;  but  he  writes  in  Greek,  not  in  Latin,  and 
is  himself  a  striking  witness  to  the  colonial  and 
dependent  character  of  the  church  in  Rome,  of 
which  I  have  spoken.     In  his  time,  this  colony  of 


64  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Jewish  converts,  and  their  faithful  Gentile  brethren, 
had  lost  nothing  of  the  faith  which  was  said  by 
St.  Paul  to  be  "  spoken  of  throughout  the  world." 
But  it  was  a  church  of  works,  not  words ; *  of  noble 
suffering,  not  of  study  and  teaching.  Her  children, 
always  exposed  to  fierce  eyes  that  glared  upon 
them  from  the  Palatine,  lived  in  daily  expectation 
of  being  thrown  to  the  jaws  that  gaped  for  them 
in  the  Coliseum.  Their  circumstances  were  little 
favourable  to  the  cultivation  of  letters,  and  even 
their  bishops,  though  generally  pious  men,  were 
taken  from  a  class  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  their 
Eastern  brethren.  A  pleasing  picture  of  the  age 
of  the  first  Bishop  of  Rome,  who  bore  the  name  of 
Pius,  comes  to  us  in  the  pages  of  the  "  Shepherd  " 
of  Hermas,  who  was  the  brother  of  that  prelate. 
Little  interesting  as  this  allegory  is  in  our  day,  it 
illustrates  the  simple  piety  and  habits  of  the  prim- 
itive Romans,  their  character  as  "  a  Greek  colony," 
and  their  gentle  efforts  to  repel  heresy  by  persua- 
sion rather  than  by  anathemas. 

21.     IRENiEUS,  — HIS   PLACE   IN   THE  WEST.2 

How  it  came  to  pass  that  such  depraved  and 
ignorant  creatures  as  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus  are 
found  at  an  early  period  in  the  Roman  succession, 
is  to  be  accounted  for,  perhaps,  by  their  personal 
history,  which  suggests  that  they  were  ambitious 
to  fill  a  place  not  coveted  by  better  men,  because 
they  meant  to  betray  their  brethren  and  save  them- 
selves while  making  gain  their  godliness. 

i  See  Note  W.  2  See  Note  X. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      65 

Of  these  I  shall  soon  speak  more  particularly, 
but    must    now   mention    the    illustrious    name    of 
Irenaeus  as  the  great  light  of  Western  Europe,  in 
whom  we  find  the  teaching  of  Polycarp  transferred 
from  the  Orient  to  Gaul,  and  thence  echoed  back 
to  Rome,  to  supply  her  lack  of  knowledge  and  of 
wisdom.     He  was,  spiritually,  the  grandson  of  St. 
John,  as  the  disciple  of  Polycarp,  and  twice  did  his 
gentle  interposition,  in   the  spirit  of  the   beloved 
disciple,  save  Rome  from  peril  of  schism  and  her- 
esy.     When  Eleutherus  was  patronizing  Monta- 
nism,   and  when  Victor  was  violating  the  sacred 
compact  which  Anicetus  had  accepted  from  Poly- 
carp, the  voice  of  Irenaeus  sounded  forth  from  the 
Rhone,  and  restored  truth  and  peace  to  the  church 
upon  the  Tiber.     Pacific,  as  his  name  implies,  he 
was  yet,  like  St.  John  himself,  "  a  son  of  thunder" 
when    he  confronted   the    great  army  of  heretics 
who  stole  the  Christian   name,  in  early  times,  only 
to  corrupt  and  trade  upon  it,  after  the  example  of 
Simon  Magus.     When  the  sun  rises  upon  a  pesti- 
lent marsh,  its  very  light  and  warmth  breed  fogs 
and  evil  exhalations,  and  it  was  not  possible  that 
many  in  a  population  like  that  of  Antioch,  when  it 
was  smitten  by  the  glory  of  the  Gospel,  should  fail 
to  borrow  its  lustre  to  set  off  their  false  philoso- 
phies  and   monstrous   superstitions.      These  they 
strove  to  make  at  once  a  snare  to  the  faithful,  and 
a  palatable   bait   to   ungodly  men   for   accepting 
themselves  instead  of  Christ  as  teachers  and  masters. 
Irenaeus,  in  an  elaborate  treatise,  exposes  their  ar- 
tifices and  their  base  counterfeits  of  Christian  gold  ; 
and  his   great  work,  of  which   only  a  small  part 
5 


66  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

comes  to  us  in  the  original  Greek,  entitles  him  to  the 
honours  of  a  prince  among  the  writers  of  Western 
Europe,  where  he  became  the  founder,  in  fact,  of 
a  distinct  school,  and  of  those  traditions  which 
long  afterwards  were  stigmatized  as  "  Gallicanism," 
though  supported  by  nearly  all  the  illustrious 
names,  clerical  and  lay,  of  Christian  France. 

22.   ROMAN   RECEPTIVITY.1 

And  here  let  me  note  a  memorable  passage,  in 
which  he  explains  the  relations  of  Rome  in  his 
day  to  other  churches  of  the  West.  His  own  his- 
tory sufficiently  illustrates  its  meaning,  though  in 
the  Latin  translation  by  which  we  know  it  there 
is  a  possibility  of  making  it  somewhat  ambiguous; 
and  artful  commentators  have  not  been  wanting 
to  read  into  it  their  own  modern  views  of  what  it 
ought  to  mean.  To  keep  it  free  from  any  colour- 
ing of  mine,  I  quote  it  as  rendered  by  a  Roman 
Catholic  writer  of  the  more  liberal  class.2  He 
gives  it  as  follows :  — 

"  To  this  church,  on  account  of  more  potent  principal- 
ity, it  is  necessary  that  every  church  (that  is,  those  who 
on  every  side  are  faithful)  resort ;  in  which  church,  ever, 
by  those  who  are  on  every  side,  has  been  preserved  that 
tradition  which  is  from  the  Apostles." 

I  do  not  know  how  words,  even  in  this  clumsy 
rendering,  could  more  clearly  define  the  receptive 
character  of  Rome,  and  her  dependence  upon  other 
churches    for   her   knowledge    of  the    faith.     The 

»  See  Note  Y. 

2  Waterworth,  "  Faith  of  Catholics,"  vol.  ii.  p.  3. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      Gj 

apostolic  tradition,  he  says,  is  preserved  in  her  "  by 
those  who  are  on  every  side,"  resorting  to  her,  as 
was  necessary,  because  of  her  civil  pre-eminence 
in  the  Empire.  In  other  words,  Rome  had  no 
school  or  teaching  of  her  own,  but,  because  she 
sat  at  the  corners  where  all  roads  met,  and  where 
all  travellers  must  come,  she  gathered  from  them 
the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  other  churches,  and 
hence  was  able  to  reflect  the  faith  everywhere 
received.  Her  "  more  potent  principality  "  was 
defined  at  Nice  and  Constantinople,  in  the  Great 
Councils,  as  purely  that  of  the  Imperial  Capitol ; 
not  a  word  in  Irenaeus  or  the  language  of  the  canons 
suggests  any  other  idea  ;  yet  the  passage  quoted  has 
been  made  ambiguous  by  assuming  that  an  ecclesi- 
astical principality  was  intended,  and  by  transform- 
ing the  words  "  necessary  to  resort  unto  "  into  the 
phrase  "  necessary  to  agree  with."  Had  this  been 
his  idea,  Irenaeus  must  have  gone  on  to  say:  "  For 
there  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul  is  preserved  by  the  infallible  authority  of  its 
bishop."  But  he  says  just  the  reverse :  "  There  the 
tradition  of  the  Apostles  is  preserved  by  the  con- 
tributions of  the  faithful  from  other  churches,  each 
bringing  to  it  what  he  has  learned  in  his  particular 
church,  and  so  establishing  a  Catholic  consent." 

23.    THE  NASCENT   PATRIARCHATE. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  very  position  of  the 
only  Apostolic  See  of  the  West  became  instru- 
mental in  stretching  her  influence  over  Western 
Europe.     Travellers    from   Gaul    and   Britain    re- 


68  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

sorted  thither,  and  there  learned  in  Latin  what 
Rome  had  been  taught  in  Greek.  The  develop- 
ment of  a  Patriarchate,  without  the  name  as  yet, 
was  the  immediate  consequence ;  but  the  Council 
of  Nice,  which  first  recognized  this  name  for  all 
the  greater  sees,  recognized  the  limits  of  this  patri- 
archal jurisdiction  as  quite  restricted.1  Not  only- 
Gaul,  but  the  territory  over  which  Milan  began  to 
tower  with  commanding  dignity,  was  far  beyond 
the  limits.  It  was  not  a  Patriarchate  of  the  West  in 
any  other  sense  than  that  it  was  in  the  West.  And 
just  how  its  "  suburbicarian"  influence  operated, 
and  in  turn  was  often  checked  and  overruled,  is 
powerfully  illustrated  in  the  history  of  Zephyrinus 
and  Callistus,  two  Bishops  of  Rome  contemporary 
with  Hippolytus  whose  influence  with  their  dio- 
cesan synods  not  only  reduced  their  judgments 
to  insignificance,  but  rescued  the  Roman  Church 
at  this  early  date  from  an  ignominious  apostasy. 
Here,  too,  we  observe  the  force  of  the  maxims 
of  Irenseus  we  have  just  considered.  Hippolytus 
was  his  disciple,  and  with  his  fellow  suffragans,  as 
they  would  now  be  called,  he  resisted  the  hereti- 
cal teaching  of  those  patriarchs.  Gathering  and 
bringing  into  Rome  the  testimony  of  the  Catholic 
churches,  East  and  West,  they  convicted  Zephyri- 
nus and  Callistus  of  heresy,  and  made  them  retract. 
"They  confessed  their  errors  for  a  short  period," 
says  Hippolytus,  "  but  after  a  little,  they  wallow 
again  in  the  same  mire." 2 

1  See  Note  Z.  2  See  Note  A'. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      69 

24.    HIPPOLYTUS. 

When  you  visit  the  Vatican,  be  sure  to  note  the 
statue  of  Hippolytus.1  It  gives  us  the  clearest  idea 
of  the  appearance  of  a  primitive  bishop.  Over  the 
tunic  he  wears  the  pallium  ;  modest  vestments,  well 
represented  by  the  Anglican  rochet  and  chimere. 
He  sits  in  his  episcopal  chair,  in  mild  majesty,  a 
noble  figure  :  high  forehead  and  features  composed 
but  resolute ;  slightly  bearded ;  one  hand  placed 
on  his  heart,  while  the  other  hand  grasps  a  book, 
the  arm  crossing  his  breast  to  reach  it.  Thank 
God  for  such  testimony  as  his,  brought  to  light  in 
our  own  times,  and  for  the  Providence  that  placed 
this  statue  in  the  Vatican  to  remind  the  degenerate 
Church  of  "  Old  Rome  "  of  its  fallibility  even  from 
the  primitive  day,  and,  as  it  were,  to  repeat  those 
warnings  of  St.  Paul:  "Be  not  high-minded,  but 
fear:  for  if  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches,  take 
heed  lest  He  also  spare  not  thee.  Behold  there- 
fore the  goodness  and  severity  of  God  :  .  .  .  toward 
thee  goodness,  if  thou  continue  in  goodness  :  otlicr- 
wise  thou  also  slialt  be  cut  off." 2  These  words 
were  addressed  to  the  virgin  Church  of  Rome,  while 
yet  her  pure  "  faith  was  spoken  of  throughout  the 
whole  world."  3  And  by  them  those  marble  lips  of 
Hippolytus,  seated  in  his  truly  apostolic  chair,  seem 
to  repeat  the  warning,  as  it  were  for  the  last  time. 

This  history,  then,  shows  where  Rome  stands  in 
the  primitive  period,  just  a  hundred  years  before 
the  Council  of  Nicaea.    Neither  a  school  nor  atcach- 

1  See  a  picture  in  Bunsen's  "  Hippolytus,"  vol.  i. 

2  Rom.  xi.  20-22.  3  Rom.  i.  8. 


yo  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

ing  see,  she  was  still  a  Greek  colony  or  daugh- 
ter church,  which  had  not  given  a  single  page  to 
Latin  Christianity,  now  coming  to  light  in  Africa. 
Thus  we  see  her  saved  by  the  Greek  doctor  Hip- 
polytus  from  the  unfathomable  infamy  and  self- 
destruction  which  must  have  resulted  had  her 
faithful  listened  to  their  own  bishops.  In  Hippoly- 
tus,  with  his  co-bishops  of  the  Roman  province, 
Irenaeus  speaks  again,  and  puts  a  practical  com- 
ment upon  the  often  distorted  words  which  I  have 
quoted  from  that  great  Father. 

25.     CAIUS  AND   NOVATIAN. 

Contemporary  with  Hippolytus  was  the  Roman 
presbyter  Caius,  who  also  wrote  in  Greek,  and  in 
whom  Hippolytus,  no  doubt,  found  an  able  helper 
against  the  heretic  bishops.  He  has  left  us  a  valu- 
able testimony  as  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment which  were  received  at  Rome  in  his  day, 
from  which  it  appears  that  Rome  yet  waited  upon 
the  East  for  the  Canon.  The  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  she  had  not  as  yet  accepted,  and  of 
the  Apocalypse  Caius  says,  "  Some  among  us  will 
not  have  it  read  in  the  church."  They  knew  of 
no  infallibility  in  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus  to  set- 
tle this  matter,  and  were  still  divided  about  it  in 
the  Roman  presbytery.  The  Eastern  patriarchs 
were  Rome's  arbiter.  In  Caius  the  Greek  succes- 
sion of  Roman  authors  comes  to  its  close,  and  the 
Latin  series  begins  (a.  d.  280)  with  Novatian  "  On 
the  Trinity."  Though  an  able  defender  of  truth 
in  this  treatise,  this  author  unhappily  fell  away  and 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      fl 

became  a  titular  bishop,  claiming  to  be  "  Bishop  of 
Rome."  This  grievously  defective  claim  was  de- 
nounced by  Cyprian,  and  he  closed  his  melancholy 
career  with  the  reputation  of  schism  and  heresy  to- 
gether. Such  and  so  little  was  the  venerable  see 
of  Clement,  down  to  good  Sylvester  and  the  first 
(Ecumenical  Council. 

26.    THE   GALLICANS. 

Truly  might  the  Gallican  Church,  if  she  were 
yet  faithful  to  her  history  and  traditions,  assert  her 
splendid  character  in  the  primitive  age  as  the 
mother  of  Catholic  orthodoxy  in  Western  Europe. 
This  is  her  true  position  through  Irenaeus  and  his 
disciples.  Not  only  does  Gaul  owe  everything  to 
the  illumination  of  his  genius,  but  through  him 
the  churches  of  Britain,  and  so  also  the  Church  of 
England,  derived  not  a  little  of  that  Greek  type  of 
orthodoxy  which  has  always  distinguished  their  his- 
tory. Of  the  development  of  Gallicanism  we  shall 
learn  more  by  and  by.  But  here  we  must  pause, 
with  a  brief  glance  at  the  spread  of  the  Gospel 
down  to  the  times  of  Constantine. 

27.    CHRONIC    PERSECUTIONS. 

From  the  days  when  St.  Stephen  fell  asleep  in 
the  stony  hail-storm,  to  the  days  when  the  rage 
of  Diocletian  had  left  the  Universal  Church  appar- 
ently in  desolation  and  in  ruins,  the  faithful  soldiers 
of  Christ  fought  their  good  fight  with  unflagging 
zeal,  patience,  and  intrepidity.  Efforts  have  been 
made  to  minimize  the  extent  of  the  ten  persecu- 


J 2  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

tions,  —  their  atrocities,  the  numbers  of  those  who 
perished,  and  the  mystery  of  the  uninterrupted  in- 
crease of  the  Church.      But  the  writings   of  the 
Apologists,  and  those  of  Tertullian  and  Cyprian, 
with  the  final  testimony  of  Lactantius,  are  sufficient 
to  prove  that  persecution  was  the  chronic  estate  of 
the  primitive  Church.     It  was  looked  upon  as  the 
normal  condition  of  Christian  life.     The  Church's 
children  accepted  their  profession  as  that  of  "  dy- 
ing daily";   they  looked  for  the  coming  of  Christ 
as  near  at  hand,  but  they  seem  not  to  have  antici- 
pated before  His  appearing  any  relief  from  their 
lot  of  "  laying  down  their  lives  for  His  sake."    The 
unaffected   language  of  the  Apologists  and    later 
writers  is  evidence  of  this  :  nor  is  it  to  be  accounted 
for,  if  the  persecutions  were,   at  worst,  only  what 
such   writers  as    Gibbon    are  willing  to    concede. 
Truly,  were   the   Master's  words    fulfilled,  —  "  Ye 
shall  be   hated  of  all  men  for  my  name's   sake." 
Yet   how    gloriously    did    the    martyrs    copy    the 
blessed   example  of  their   Master  in   praying   for 
their  murderers !     At  the  stake  they  chanted  the 
psalms,  or  lifted  up  their  voices  in  the   Christian 
hymns,  —  in  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  at  daybreak,  or 
in  their  even-song  for  the  sunset,  or  "  the  lighting 
of  the  lamps."  x     In  the  Coliseum  whole  families 
were  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts,  refusing  to  save 
their  lives  by  throwing  a  grain  of  incense  on  the 
brazier  that  glowed  before  an  idol.    Tender  women 
clasped  their  husband's  necks,  entreating  them  not 
to  surrender,  and  little  children,  clinging  to  their 
fathers'  knees,  or  the  white  raiment  of  their  mothers, 
i  See  Note  B'. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      7$ 

cried  out,  "  We  shall  all  sup  with  Jesus ;  let  the 
lions  come  on."  From  the  martyrdoms  of  Antioch 
to  those  of  Lyons  and  Vienne,  —  from  those  of  Pro- 
consular Asia  and  Northern  Africa  to  those  of  our 
forefathers  at  St.  Alban's,  —  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  became  the  seed  of  the  Church.  But  — 
"  How  that  red  rain  did  make  the  harvest  grow  !  " 

28.     GROWTH   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

They  have  tried,  also,  to  minimize  the  blessed 
result;  but  the  testimony  of  our  Christian  authors 
is  unequivocal,  nor  could  they  have  hazarded  such 
language  as  they  habitually  used  had  their  state- 
ments been  such  as  their  adversaries  could  deny. 
Of  this  the  crowning  evidence  is  the  submission  of 
Constantine.  The  conversion  of  the  Empire,  which 
was  its  immediate  consequence,  and  which  Julian 
might  have  very  readily  suppressed  had  it  rested 
on  any  other  than  the  solid  base  of  a  defeated 
Paganism,  is  the  pyramid  of  evidence  which  none 
can  overthrow. 

It  is  noteworthy  how  often,  in  a  great  moral  rev- 
olution, reactionary  periods  have  been  allowed  to 
defeat  themselves,  and  to  give  the  last  clinching 
blows  that  confirmed  the  change  with  the  very 
hammer  lifted  to  destroy  it.  Julian's  apostasy 
drove  the  last  nail  into  the  coffin  of  Paganism, 
a  word  which,  coming  into  vogue  at  this  epoch, 
proved  that  Christianity  had  become  predominant 
everywhere  save  among  rustics  and  barbarians 
in  uncivilized  villages  (_pagi),  even  Julian  himself 
with  his  adherents  treating  the  old  myths  as  a 
creed  outworn,  and  striving  to  give  it  a  new  base  of 


74  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

poetical  and  philosophical  theory.  Note,  too,  what 
the  admissions  of  his  apostasy  imply.  His  own 
new  and  theoretical  heathenism  demonstrates  the 
extinction  of  the  old  idolatries ;  the  apostate  bor- 
rows from  Alexandria  the  ideas  of  Clement  and  of 
Athanasius,  who  had  made  learning,  and  not  igno- 
rance, the  handmaid  of  religion.  From  the  Church, 
too,  he  catches  the  ennobling  principle  that  a  lofty 
moral  system  must  sustain  the  new  augurs  and 
priests  of  his  reformed  mythology;  they  must 
rival  the  clergy  at  least  in  outward  respectability. 
Note,  too,  what  a  tribute  he  pays  to  Christianity, 
in  closing  the  Christian  schools,  and  trying  to 
throw  education,  even  in  grammar  and  rhetoric, 
into  the  hands  of  his  philosophers.  From  first  to 
last,  his  effort  to  supplant  the  work  of  Constantine 
demonstrates  the  superior  statesmanship  of  the 
latter,  whose  sagacity  discovered  that  nothing  re- 
mained of  Numa's  priestcraft  but  a  hollow  shell. 
Even  if  his  dying  lips  are  not  to  be  credited  with 
the  words,  we  may  say  with  truth  that  his  bitter 
convictions  must  have  been,  as  he  bit  the  dust  in 
death,  "  O  Galilean  !  thou  hast  conquered." 

29.     CONVERSION    OF   THE  EMPIRE. 

Thus  this  most  wonderful  revolution  of  institu- 
tions, laws,  and  manners  which  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  was  proved  to  be  the  outcome  of  a  popular 
conviction  so  general  as  to  furnish  it  with  a  firm 
support.  It  had  become  a  necessity.  This  is  the 
only  logical  way  of  accounting  for  the  conduct  of 
the  soldiery,  who  hailed  the  accession  of  Jovian,  and 
who  restored  the  cross  to  their  ensigns,  never  again 


THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS  AND  NEXT  AGES.      J$ 

to  be  dishonoured.  Look  at  this  dilemma  of  un- 
belief. If  the  Christians  were  not  numerous,  if  the 
cross  had  not  won  its  triumph,  then  all  the  greater 
the  miracle.  Then  Constantine  supplanted  the 
Roman  eagles  on  the  Imperial  standards  while  yet 
the  cross  was  infamy  and  all  but  universally  ab- 
horred. Who  can  credit  this?  But  more,  on  such 
a  theory,  he  substituted  churches  for  idol  temples, 
and  removed  the  capital  itself  from  the  immemo- 
rial seat  of  empire  to  adorn  the  first  Christian  city, 
none  presuming  to  remonstrate,  while  Christians 
were  yet  inconsiderable  in  numbers  and  in  the 
influence  of  their'  characters.  Is  this  to  be  cred- 
ited? But  be  it  so!  Then  is  the  miracle  all  the 
greater:  all  the  stronger  the  right  hand,  all  the 
more  manifest  the  stretched-out  arm  of  the  Cruci- 
fied, in  giving  his  churches  rest.  Have  it  as  you 
will :  here  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  promises,  but 
only  in  part.  The  ages  of  persecution  have  de- 
monstrated the  fact  that  the  gates  of  hell  cannot 
prevail :  they  have  made  the  heathen  feel  that  the 
chariots  of  salvation  cannot  be  stayed  in  their  ca- 
reer of  conquest  and  of  universal  dominion.  Nay, 
more,  they  have  made  the  princes  of  this  world  to 
feel  that  "  they  come  to  naught." 

30.     C^SARS    CONQUERED   BY    MARTYRS. 

Yes,  and  still  further,  they  have  taught  kings  and 
Caesars  that,  as  Christ  can  triumph  in  spite  of  them, 
so  too  can  He  reign  without  them.  Come  then,  ye 
Caesars,1  if  ye  choose  to  be  wise  at  last ;  now  when 
this  humbling  lesson  has  been  forced  upon  you,  so 
See  Note  C. 


j6  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

that  all  mankind  must  see  it,  —  now  you  may  do 
your  part,  if  ye  are  ready  to  "  kiss  the  Son."  Take 
your  place  as  servants,  if  ye  will,  and  so  become 
"nursing  fathers"  to  His  kingdom;  but  "know 
yourselves  to  be  but  men,"  and  ascribe  nothing  to 
yourselves  which  Christ  may  permit  you  to  do  by 
His  grace.  Abolish  the  brutal  manners  of  the 
heathen;  throw  down  their  foetid  altars;  destroy 
their  hateful  slavery  and  gladiatorial  shows ;  re- 
form the  morals  and  the  times ;  give  men  Christian 
wives,  and  mothers,  and  families  ;  give  them  the  day 
of  the  Lord ;  make  Christian  laws  to  sustain  hu- 
man rights  ;  build  churches  ;  restore  the  Christian 
schools ;  endow  hospitals,  enlarge  charities,  send 
forth  missions;  emblazon  the  cross  on  your  stand- 
ards, set  it  on  your  sceptres,  your  orbs  and  crowns  ; 
but  know  that  Christ  needs  not  your  patronage, 
much  less  your  control.  Think  of  the  millions  of 
martyrs  and  confessors  your  cruel  edicts  have  made ; 
think  of  the  deserts  and  the  catacombs,  the  wilds 
and  caves  of  the  earth,  to  which  you  have  driven 
them ;  think  of  the  humble  and  the  poor  whom  ye 
have  been  impotent  to  bribe  or  to  terrify;  reflect 
that,  without  carnal  weapons,  these  have  overcome 
your  legions.  Behold  the  Caesars  vanquished  by 
old  men  and  women,  by  youth  unarmed,  by  babes 
and  virgins :  "  Not  by  might,  not  by  power,  but  by 
my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  Own  it,  and 
be  sure  of  the  rest.  The  Nazarene  must  reign  for 
ever  and  ever;  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  to 
be  the  kingdom  of  our  God  and  of  His  Christ. 
He  has  gone  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer ; 
He  is  "  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords." 


LECTURE    III. 

THE   SYNODICAL  PERIOD. 

I.     THE   CONVERSION   OF   CONSTANTINE. 

THE  conversion  of  the  Emperor  introduced 
the  Church  to  new  trials  and  temptations, 
and  these  were,  in  some  respects,  more  formida- 
ble perils  than  those  of  the  preceding  centuries.  I 
have  noted  the  influence  of  the  persecutions,  pro- 
tracted through  ten  generations  of  believers,  in 
producing  among  Christians  a  habit  of  thought, 
most  natural  in  the  circumstances,  identifying  the 
Christian  profession  with  their  actual  experiences. 
To  be  a  Christian  was  to  be  persecuted  of  course. 
This  was  accepted  as  a  fact,  and  grew  into  a  prin- 
ciple. The  estate  of  outward  prosperity  was  ig- 
nobly selfish,  if  not  absolutely  unlawful,  for  the 
faithful.  The  glories  of  martyrdom  were  naturally 
exaggerated ;  confessorship  assumed  the  forms  of 
voluntary  exile,  of  the  celibate,  of  ascetic  life  in  the 
desert,  in  the  catacombs,  in  caves  of  the  earth,  and 
finally  of  monasticism.  All  these  varieties  of  cross- 
bearing,  honourable  and  sanctified  as  they  were  in 
themselves,  were  yet  liable  to  beget  extreme  opin- 
ions as  to  their  merits,  and  fanciful  views  of  the 
life  (as  if  less  godly  and  consistent)  of  those  who 


78  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

served  the  Lord  in  the  holy  estate  of  matrimony, 
reared  families,  and  created  the  Christian  home. 


2.     RESERVE   AND   MODERATION. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  new  state  of  things 
under  Constantine  was  received  by  the  Church 
with  little  exultation.1  No  doubt  it  was,  to  Chris- 
tians, incredible  that  it  should  continue.  The  Em- 
peror was  unbaptized ;  there  was  no  disposition  to 
shorten  his  time  as  a  catechumen ;  there  was  evi- 
dent distrust  of  him,  as  well  might  be,  considering 
the  untamed  paganism  of  his  manners.  He  might 
at  any  time  relapse ;  and  then  they  foresaw  a  re- 
action, and  could  not  be  sure  of  his  successors.  A 
wise  and  prudent  reserve  is  the  temper  of  the 
times  almost  universally;  but,  even  in  accepting  it 
as  a  fact  that  the  Empire  was  to  be  Christian,  the 
Church  seems  to  have  adapted  herself  with  con- 
summate caution  to  the  novelty  of  the  circum- 
stances. 

3.     THE   CELIBATE. 

There  was  no  haste  to  marry  and  to  give  in 
marriage,  on  the  part  of  those  born  Christians, 
but  rather,  as  there  was  now  no  immediate  pros- 
pect of  martyrdom,  it  became  a  favourite  idea  to 
prove  one's  deadness  to  the  world  by  following  St. 
Anthony  into  the  sort  of  life  which  was  subsequently 
developed  into  monasticism.  Oriental  in  its  origin, 
it  afterwards  assumed  distinct  types  in  the  West; 
and,  pure  and  useful  as  it  was  at  first,  the  institution 

1  See  Note  D'. 


THE  SYNODIC 'A L  PERIOD.  79 

rapidly  degenerated,  and,  with  many  noble  excep- 
tions, became,  in  the  East  and  West  alike,  a  mere 
anachronism  ;  unsuited  to  the  real  wants  of  the  ages 
that  followed  those  of  the  great  Councils.1  In  after 
times  the  urgent  necessity  of  reforms  was  met  by 
the  creation  of  new  orders,  and  these,  in  turn,  be- 
coming as  salt  devoid  of  savour,  there  arose  in  the 
West  the  new  form  of  "Friars,"  aiming  to  restore 
an  evangelical  poverty  and  simplicity.  But  these 
again,  in  their  rapid  degeneracy  and  greed  of 
riches,  rendering  the  system  hateful  alike  to  the 
powers  of  Church  and  State,  invited  spoliation  and 
suppression;  and  conflicting,  as  they  did,  with  the 
divine  institution  of  the  Episcopate,  from  alle- 
giance to  which  they  always  contrived  to  release 
themselves,  they  have  been  everywhere  abolished, 
or  reduced  to  the  shadows  of  their  originally  gigan- 
tic proportions. 

4.     OTHER   IMMEDIATE   RESULTS. 

Of  other  immediate  effects  of  the  great  revolu- 
tion, some  were  beneficial  and  some  quite  the  re- 
verse.2 Let  me  rapidly  glance  at  them  in  outline. 
(t.)  The  close  of  three  centuries  of  fiery  persecu- 
tion was  of  itself  a  gain  to  civilization,  and  in  many 
ways  promoted  the  growth  of  the  Church.  To 
repair  the  desolations  of  many  generations  ;  to  re- 
build the  churches  destroyed  by  Diocletian,  to 
found  new  ones,  and  little  by  little  to  turn  pagan 
temples  into  Christian  basilicas,  —  all  this  was  great 
gain.  (2.)  To  enable  the  cowardly  and  ignorant 
1  See  Note  E'.  -  See  Note  F'. 


80  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

masses  to  hear  the  gospel,  and  to  embrace  it,  with 
impunity,  was  yet  a  greater  benefit.  (3.)  The 
blow  given  at  once  to  idols  and  their  shrines,  and 
the  contempt  into  which  they  fell  immediately, 
was  a  leap  out  of  the  shadow  of  death  into  the 
dawn  of  day,  an  unspeakable  blessing  to  the  souls 
of  men,  and  not  less  an  emancipation  of  the  human 
intellect.  (4.)  But  the  reformation  of  laws,  which 
in  some  degree  was  an  instantaneous  consequence 
of  the  change,  cannot  be  regarded  by  any  candid 
mind  without  exultation.  The  edict  for  observing 
the  Day  of  the  Lord  (a.  D.  312)  was  of  itself  a  res- 
toration of  one  of  the  primal  endowments  of  man- 
kind by  the  benevolent  Father  of  the  race,  and  the 
speedy  reform  of  laws  affecting  marriage  and 
divorce  concurred  with  the  recognition  of  Sunday 
as  a  day  of  rest  to  endow  the  converted  heathen 
with  the  purified  institution  of  the  family,  and  with 
the  gift  of  the  Christian  home.  (5.)  Upon  these  fol- 
lowed the  erection  of  Christian  society,  in  marked 
contrast  with  Paganism,  by  its  benevolent  provis- 
ions for  the  sick  and  needy,  by  its  care  for  the 
widow  and  the  orphan,  by  suppressing  open  prof- 
ligacy and  licentiousness,  by  ameliorating  the 
public  burdens  of  the  poor,  by  discouragement  of 
gladiatorial  shows,  and  softening  the  hardships  of 
slavery,  which  it  gradually  destroyed.  (6.)  The 
laws,  moreover,  were  tempered  by  mercies  un- 
known before,  in  the  mitigation  of  Draconian  pen- 
alties, and  in  the  protection  of  the  poorer  sort,  who 
were  encouraged  to  appeal  against  official  abuses 
and  maladministration ;  while  the  germinal  princi- 
ple of  the  habeas  corpus  was  also   interposed  for 


THE  SYNODIC AL  PERIOD.  8 1 

the  relief  of  all  classes.     (7.)  If  these  benefits  soft- 
ened the  manners  and  elevated  the  morals  of  the 
masses,    It   cannot  be  denied  that  indirectly  they 
favoured  science  and  the  domestic  arts,  if  not  as 
yet   the  fine   arts    and  the    cultivation   of  letters, 
which  had  fallen  so  low  under  the  brutalized  suc- 
cessors of  the  Antonines.     (8.)  The  founding  of  a 
Christian  city  on  the  Bosporus,  and  the  transfer  of 
the  capital,  were  marks  of  a  lofty  genius  in  Con- 
stantine,  and  this  effort  was  not  unfavourable  to  the 
development  of  Christian  culture  in  other  respects. 
If  the  movement  failed   to   arrest  the   decline  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  as  such,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  anything  else  contributed  in  the  same  de- 
gree to  its  perpetuity  under  its  new  forms  and  con- 
ditions.    In  the  East,  the  direct  line  of  the  Caesars 
perished  not  till  after  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century ;   and  in  the  West,  at  least  the  shadow  of  its 
name  vanished  only  with  the  earlier  years  of  our 
own.     (9.)   But,  greatest  of  all,  the  immediate  re- 
sult  of  the    conversion    of  the    Empire    was  the 
development  of  catholic  unity  by    the    gathering 
of  the  Universal  Episcopate  at  Nicaea  for  synodi- 
cal  action,  and  the  opening  of  that  great  synodical 
period  which  defined  the  Faith  and  the  Constitu- 
tions of  Christendom.     It  laid  the  groundwork  of 
all  the  free  Constitutions  that  have  been  since  de- 
veloped;   the    spirit  of  the  Gospel  has  been  the 
seed  of  growth  and  progress  wherever  it  has  been 
disseminated   in  its    purity.     (10.)  "  There    was   a 
time,"  says  Bishop  Home,  "  when  a  Christian  could 
travel  through  the  civilized  world,  with  letters  from 
his  bishop,  finding  in  every  city  a  welcome  and  a 

6 


82  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

home  among  his  fellow  Christians."  The  stranger, 
whose  very  name  was  equivalent  to  that  of  enemy, 
thus  became  a  guest,  and  humanity  received  a  new 
charter  from  man,  in  the  name  of  God.  Such  was 
the  new  bond  of  society,  the  "  fellowship  of  na- 
tions," the  brotherhood  of  the  human  family  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God. 


5.     DISADVANTAGES. 

Certain  temporary  disadvantages  may  indeed  be 
cited  by  the  pessimist,  and  worldly  philosophers 
may  dwell  on  the  weakening  of  the  Empire  as  a 
primary  and  fatal  consequence.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  even  this  may  be  doubted ;  for  the  policy  of 
Diocletian  in  partitioning  the  Empire  among  titu- 
lar Caesars  had  already  diminished  the  grandeur 
of  the  Imperial  crown,  had  divided  the  strength  of 
the  Empire,  and  introduced  such  intestine  feuds  as 
would  probably  have  much  sooner  dismembered 
it  and  reduced  it  to  fragmentary  sovereignties,  had 
not  some  elements  of  new  life  been  infused  by  the 
bold  and  hazardous  experiment.  Far  more  griev- 
ous is  the  unquestionable  evil  which  was  so  soon 
obvious  in  the  court  Christianity,  in  the  worldly 
religion  made  fashionable  by  the  revolution.  The 
Church  became  political  almost  inevitably,  and 
men  whose  "  kingdom  was  wholly  of  this  world  " 
began  to  exercise  authority  in  her  sacred  name. 
"  Whence  hath  it  tares?  "  "  The  Enemy  had  done 
this,"  as  the  Master  had  predicted ;  and  the  net  to 
which  he  had  likened  His  kingdom  began  to  en- 
close "  a  multitude  of  fishes,  both  good  and  bad." 


THE  SYNODIC AL  PERIOD.  S$ 

6.     LASTING  RESULTS. 

The  Church  Militant  here  on  earth  must  feel 
the  Enemy,  and  at  times  his  grip  is  terrible.  Yet 
who  can  fail  to  see  that,  in  these  reprisals,  he  was 
revenging,  as  he  could,  a  tremendous  convulsion, 
that  had  rent  into  fragments  the  hold  he  had  kept 
for  ages,  like  a  "  strong  man  armed."  It  was  the 
fury  of  Satan,  dispossessed  by  one  destined  to 
crush  his  head ;  he  had  been  made  to  feel  that 
the  eleven  Galilean  fishermen  were  stronger  than 
himself,  in  the  might  of  that  One.  In  spite  of  all 
he  did  then,  and  has  been  doing  ever  since,  as  the 
war  goes  on  to  its  glorious  conclusion,  we  must 
not  fail  to  recognize  the  truth,  that  most  substan- 
tial gains  to  the  cause  of  Christ  were  the  fruit  of 
Constantine's  mighty  revolution.  It  greatly  con- 
tributed to  scatter  far  and  wide  the  seeds  of  evan- 
gelization, of  civilization,  of  human  progress ;  and 
while  it  threw  down  the  horrible  despotism  of 
heathenism  from  the  throne  of  the  world,  it  en- 
throned in  its  stead,  as  a  law  that  cannot  be 
broken,  the  love  of  Christ  to  the  world  of  men. 
Under  this  law,  it  gathered  people  out  of  all  na- 
tions into  one  spiritual  kingdom,  and  substituted 
for  a  universal  bondage  of  despair  the  catholic 
ties  of  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  and  of  a  common 
destiny  in  life  beyond  the  grave. 

7.     PRIMITIVE   COUNCILS. 

"  He  who  shall  introduce  into  public  affairs  the 
principles  of  primitive  Christianity  will  change  the 


84  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

face  of  the  world."  Such  was  the  sagacious  apho- 
rism of  Franklin,  recognizing  a  truth  not  suffi- 
ciently affirmed  by  Christians:  for  those  principles 
did  change  the  face  of  the  world.1  By  departing 
from  them,  Christian  nations  relapse  into  the  for- 
mer barbarism  satirized  by  Juvenal  and  scourged 
by  St.  Paul.  It  is  only  where  and  so  far  as  those 
principles  are  restored,  that  man  is  a  man,  and  the 
brotherhood  of  humanity  is  maintained.  Free  gov- 
ernments find  their  original  in  the  combinations  of 
law  and  liberty  which  were  first  seen  in  the  primi- 
tive synods.  These  were  first  developed  in  the 
East,  like  everything  else  that  is  Christian.  They 
found  their  model  and  their  warrant  in  the  Council 
of  Jerusalem,  when  the  "  apostles,  presbyters,  and 
brethren  "  came  together  to  deliberate,  and  in  its 
results  which  were  published  in  the  name  of  "  the 
whole  Church."  But  we  find  councils  naturalized 
in  Italy  in  the  days  of  Hippolytus,  when  the  sub- 
urbicarian  bishops  confronted  and  humbled  the 
bishop  who  presided  over  them,  in  the  free  spirit 
of  their  Master's  maxim,  "  All  ye  are  brethren." 
But  unquestionably  the  grand  expounder  of  the 
primitive  synodical  system  is  Cyprian,  the  martyr 
Bishop  of  Carthage,  who  would  do  nothing  with- 
out the  approval  of  his  presbytery,  —  omni plebe  ad- 
stante,  —  the  laity  also  having  their  place  and  their 
voice.  Note  also,  that  while,  after  Ignatius  in  the 
East,  we  find  no  one  so  strenuously  maintaining 
the  principle  of  episcopacy  as  Cyprian,  it  is  not 
less  true  that  he  is  equally  energetic  in  asserting 
the  rights  of  priests  and  deacons,  and  of  the  whole 
1  See  Note  G'. 


THE  SYXODICAL  PERIOD.  85 

people, — the  faithful  in  Christ,  as  he  loved  to  call 
them.1  So  then,  even  during  the  martyr  ages,  the 
synodical  features  of  the  Church's  polity  became 
a  precedent.  Early  Christians  believed  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Christ,  by  His  Vicar  Spirit,  wherever  two 
or  three  were  gathered  in  His  name.  They  be- 
lieved in  His  promise  concerning  the  agreement  of 
the  disciples  in  anything  to  be  prayed  for.  They 
considered  the  plural  form,  "  Our  Father,"  as  em- 
bodying the  great  law  of  the  communion  of  saints  ; 
that  is,  of  all  Christians  in  one  spiritual  family. 
Moreover,  they  understood  that  "  where  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty."  It  is  surprising 
how  instinctively,  when  they  were  no  longer  a  per- 
secuted flock,  this  spirit  showed  itself  in  the  general 
demand  for  an  (Ecumenical  Council. 


8.     A   NURSING   FATHER. 

Here,  it  is  true,  a  new  idea  was  generated  with  a 
strange  unanimity,  illustrative,  indeed,  of  the  loyal 
and  dutiful  spirit  of  Christians  under  the  tyranny 
of  persecutors,  but  now  taking  a  filial  and  loving 
form  toward  the  Emperor,  as  "  a  nursing  father  "  of 
the  Church.2  With  wonder,  and  gratitude  to  God, 
they  not  merely  saw  in  Constantine  the  fulfilment 
of  this  promise,  but  they  naturally  classed  him 
with  those  potentates  whom  God  had  raised  up  in 
divers  ages  to  serve  and  to  succour  His  people. 
If  even  Nero  was  "  the  minister  of  God  to  them 
for  good,"  as  St.  Paul  had  taught,  how  much  more 
was  the  believing  Caesar  another  Cyrus,  to  whom 
1  See  Note  H'.  2  See  Note  V. 


86  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

God  himself  was  saying,  "  Thou  art  my  shep- 
herd "  !  Hence,  the  easy  transition  to  a  mild  and 
loyal  "  Caesarism,"  perilous  indeed  beyond  all  they 
could  then  conceive,  and  destined  to  make  mis- 
chief in  after  times ;  but  most  conspicuous  at  this 
epoch,  making  emphatic  the  entire  absence  of  any 
papal  ideas  or  claims,  and  rebuking,  as  it  were  be- 
forehand, the  arrogance  and  worldliness  with  which 
pontiffs  afterwards  struggled,  as  they  do  even  in 
our  day,  for  earthly  crowns  and  for  a  temporal 
supremacy  over  nations  and  their  rulers. 

The  sovereign  was  but  a  catechumen,  but  then 
Cyrus  was  uncircumcised.  As  "  God's  ordinance," 
they  had  no  doubt  he  was  in  God's  hand,  and  called 
to  "  perform  all  His  pleasure."  His  was  the  only 
voice  that  could  reach  to  every  corner  of  the 
cccnmene,  and  his  the  only  bounty  that  could  pro- 
vide for  the  cost  of  an  oecumenical  synod.  No 
human  being  doubting,  —  no  bishop  preferring 
any  claim  to  be  the  authority  for  a  call  of  brother 
bishops,  —  all  acquiesced  in  the  natural  course  of 
things,  and  while  a  Caesar  voiced  the  wishes  of  the 
whole  Church,  it  was  apparently  the  voice  of 
Caesar  only  that  was  heard.  Again  was  seen  that 
which  was  foreshadowed  at  the  nativity :  "  A  de- 
cree went  forth  from  Caesar  Augustus  that  all  the 
world  should  be  enrolled." 


9.     THE   TEMPORAL  BISHOPRIC. 

So  now  began  that  view  of  the  relations  between 
Church  and  State  which  God  overruled  for  so 
much  good,  but  which,  in  its  developed  form,  has 


THE  SYNODICAL  PERIOD.  87 

been  so  very  bad  for  Church  and  State  alike.  In 
the  primitive  age  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Church 
were  not  subject  to  any  state  interference :  the 
Church  was  self-governing.  But  her  external  con- 
cerns and  interests  were  largely  intrusted  to  Caesar, 
who  began  to  be  esteemed  a  sort  of  "  bishop,"  or 
overseer  of  its  temporalities.  Hence  the  common 
concession  to  sovereign  princes,  in  later  times,  of 
the  Episcopate  ab  extra.  The  Gallicans  called  their 
kings  eviques  an  dehors}  The  German  Emperors 
often  maintained  this  position  against  the  pontiffs 
with  a  strong  hand ;  and  the  Anglicans  restored  to 
Henry  VIII.  nothing  more  nor  less  than  pontiffs 
themselves  had  over  and  over  again  recognized 
in  the  Heinrichs  and  the  Othos.  It  was  the  un- 
doubted position  of  Alfred  and  of  William  the 
Norman.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  recur  to  this 
matter  when  I  come  to  Charlemagne. 

10.     A   GENERAL   COUNCIL. 

As  early  as  A.  D.  313,  Constantine  convoked  a 
local  council  at  Rome  in  the  affair  of  the  Dona- 
tists ;  but  it  settled  nothing,  though  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  presided  in  it,  and  an  appeal  to  the  Emperor 
led  him,  in  the  succeeding  year,  to  call  together 
a  more  general  Council  of  the  West,  at  Aries,  in 
Gaul.  Bishops  from  Africa  came  thither;  and 
what  is  more  interesting  to  us,  there  were  present 
also,  three  bishops  from  Britain,  who  subscribed 
to  its  decrees,  viz.  Eborius  of  York,  Rcstitutus  of 
London,  and  Adelfius,  possibly  of  Lincoln,  though 
1  See  Note  ]'. 


88  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

his  signature  is  ambiguous.  When,  eleven  years 
afterwards,  the  great  see  of  Alexandria  was  shaken 
by  the  innovations  in  doctrine  of  the  unhappy 
Arius,  and  when  it  was  observed  that  the  time 
had  come  for  the  regulation  of  the  paschal  usages, 
which  were  still  diverse  in  the  West  from  those  of 
the  East,  the  sublime  thought  of  an  (Ecumenical 
Synod  took  shape  spontaneously,  and  the  Caesar 
called  it  to  assemble  at  Nica^a,  in  Bithynia. 

ii.     NICyEA. 

Let  us  pause  for  a  minute  to  get  some  idea  of  a 
spot  so  sacred  in  associations.  The  modern  travel- 
ler finds  it  a  wretched  site  of  hovels,  under  the 
name  Isnik,  where,  amid  majestic  relics,  are  hud- 
dled together  some  thirty  Turkish  families  and 
about  as  many  Christians.  Great  is  the  desola- 
tion, but  superb  even  yet  are  the  ruins  of  what 
was  once  the  opulent  and  beautiful  Nicaea,  named 
from  the  wife  of  Lysimachus  at  her  own  sugges- 
tion. Antigonus,  his  predecessor,  was  its  founder, 
and  he  aspired  to  give  it  his  own  name.  Its  posi- 
tion and  importance  as  a  centre  of  commerce,  with 
roads  radiating  thence  in  every  direction,  made  it 
a  convenient  place  for  those  coming  to  southern 
ports,  from  Antioch  and  Alexandria,  or  to  those 
arriving  from  the  West,  and  landing  at  Ephesus  or 
Smyrna.  Its  twofold  circuit  of  walls,  with  lofty 
towers  and  gates  sublime,  still  announces  its  de- 
parted splendours.  Lake  Ascanius  lies  near,  in 
quiet  beauty,  surrounded  by  hills  and  groves,  and 
thence  the  land  stretches  upward  to  the  Bebrycian 


THE  SYNODICAL  rEKIOD.  89 

Olympus,  whose  glistening  domes  of  snow  are  vis- 
ible in  the  horizon.  As  an  emblem  of  what  was 
4one  to  desecrate  the  spot  in  the  eighth  century 
under  the  infamous  Irene,  pestilence  bred  of  stag- 
nating puddles  has  succeeded  its  once  delicious 
and  healthful  climate. 

Here  then  came  the  Christians.  Of  many 
tongues  they  were,  and  from  many  climes.  Con- 
stantine  himself  was  a  native  of  Britain,  born  at 
York.  But  all  recognized  the  language  of  the 
New  Testament  as  the  catholic  language,  and  the 
East  as  the  native  seat  of  the  Church.  Hosius, 
Bishop  of  Corduba,  in  Spain,  had  lately  been  to 
Alexandria,  and  it  is  not  doubted  that  the  Emperor 
was  moved  to  this  great  measure  by  him  and  by 
the  Alexandrian  church.  Here,  then,  "  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church"  rose  up  before  all  the  world 
in  its  unity.  Decius  and  Diocletian  had  made 
havoc  of  the  fathers,  but  "  instead  of  the  fathers 
were  the  children."  They  said,  "  Here  we  are." 
The  gates  of  hell  had  not  prevailed. 

12.    THE    OPENING. 

Then  was  seen  the  fruit  of  that  little  "  handful 
of  corn  "  that  Christ  had  left  upon  Olivet,  and  the 
hills  round  about  Jerusalem,  when  he  went  up  on 
high.  How  "  green  it  was  in  all  the  earth"  !  how 
truly  it  "  shook  like  Lebanon  "  !  The  "  eleven  " 
and  "  the  hundred  and  twenty,"  —  they  had  become 
"  the  Holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world,"  and 
now  their  bishops  came  to  testify  that  "  always, 
everywhere,  and  by  all  "  it  had  acknowledged  "  the 


90  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Everlasting  Son  of  the  Father  Everlasting."    Over 
these  Roman  roads  that  stretched  from  the  Capitol, 
like  the  threads  of  the  spider's  web,  to  Gaul  and 
Britain,  to  Persia  on  the  east,  and  by  Spain  to  ports 
that  opened  to  Africa,  the  Emperor  had  multiplied 
vehicles  like  the  wagons  which  Joseph  sent  out 
of  Egypt  for  his  father  and  his  brethren.     They 
came  from  all  lands  where  they  had  published  the 
Gospel  of  Peace,  many  of  them  men  of  literary  at- 
tainments, eloquence,  and  great  piety;    others  of 
them  venerable  confessors,  relics  of  Diocletian's 
cruelty,  maimed  in  their  banishment  to  dark  mines, 
—  branded  in  the  flesh,  one  deprived  of  an  eye,  an- 
other "  halting  on  his  thigh,"  another  bowed  down 
with  age  and  infirmities,  —  "  bearing  in  their  bodies 
the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus."     What  a  spectacle 
for  angels  and  men!     Bishops,  318,  like  the  num- 
ber of  Abraham's  household,  they  enjoyed  this  as- 
sociation with  the  Father  of  the  Faithful.    In  divers 
preliminary  conferences,  "  like  our  committees  of 
the  whole,"  held  in  a  church  or  oratory  with  solem- 
nities of  worship,   not  only  presbyters  took   part, 
but    also    lay-brethren.      The    Council    itself  was 
strictly  a  "  house  of  bishops."    Yet  Athanasius  was 
there  as  a  deacon,  attending  his  bishop,  Alexander, 
who  soon  after  left  to  this   marvellous  youth  his 
great  patriarchal  see  and  the  defence  of  the  faith. 
Hosius  was  called  to  the  presidency,  but  was  as- 
sisted   probably    by    Eusebius.      When    all   were 
gathered  in  a  great  hall  of  the  palace,  the  Caesar 
appeared  in  imperial  purple   and  glittering  orna- 
ments of  state,  like  Saul  for  his  stature,  and  stately 
in  his  pace.     He  blushed  as  he  stood  face  to  face 


THE  SYNODICAL   PERIOD. 


91 


with  his  fathers  in  God,  passing  from  the  end  of 
the  hall  to  his  throne,  while  they  stood  to  meet 
him  in  rows  on  either  side.  What  must  have  been 
their  reflections  ?  What  were  his  ?  Surely  there  was 
a  shaking  among  the  shades  in  Hades.  If  the  dead 
were  stirred  up  at  that  moment;  if  Pilate,  if  Nero, 
if  Aurelius,  if  Decius,  if  Diocletian,  saw  their  heroic 
successor  there  among  Christ's  servants,  standing 
modestly  till  they  begged  him  to  be  seated,  — 
surely  they  must  have  anticipated  Julian  in  the 
outcry,  "  O  Galilean  !  thou  hast  conquered."  For 
the  moral  sublime,  I  can  hardly  recall  any  like 
moment  in  mere  human  history  to  be  compared 
with  it ;  its  impressions  upon  the  imagination  and 
the  thoughtful  intellect  are  beyond  comparison 
overwhelming  and  elevating,  at  once  tender  and 
majestic.  Blessed  martyrs !  from  your  repose  in 
paradise  were  ye  permitted  to  behold,  and  to 
exclaim,  "What  hath  God  wrought?" 

13.     SIGNIFICANT  FACTS. 

Here  two  facts  are  to  be  noted.  (1.)  The  holy 
Gospels  were  set  on  a  throne  in  the  old  councils  1  as 
the  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Above  the  bish- 
ops and  their  presidents  —  above  Caesar  —  O  how 
far !  —  God's  holy  word  was  supreme.  The  rule 
of  faith  was  the  word  of  God.  Councils  were  only 
to  bear  testimony  to  the  universal  interpretation 
handed  down  in  the  churches.  (2.)  The  regimen 
and  polity  of  all  the  churches  were  the  same,  — 
those  of  Ignatius  and  of  Cyprian.2  Not  a  hint  was 
1  See  Note  K'.  2  See  Note  I/. 


92  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

there  of  any  difference ;  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to 
the  Ultima  Thule  of  the  Northwest,  "  the  ancient 
customs  "  and  traditions  of  Christians  in  this  re- 
spect were  a  unit.  Now,  if  these  were  a  departure 
from  what  apostles  had  ordained  in  all  the  churches, 
when  and  how  was  the  universal  innovation  es- 
tablished? We  have  the  history  of  conflicts  and 
schisms,  starting  from  very  trifling  novelties.  How 
comes  it  to  pass,  if  the  Episcopate  was  an  after- 
thought, an  innovation,  a  usurpation,  that  no  con- 
vulsion followed,  —  no  primitive  witnesses  recorded 
their  protest?  How,  since  human  nature  is  always 
the  same,  were  there  none  among  the  presbyters  to 
maintain  their  order  against  a  universal  invasion? 
How  is  it  —  when  in  all  the  presbyteries  of  the 
universe,  respectively,  some  one  man  rose  up  claim- 
ing to  preside  over  them  by  a  divine  call,  and  to  be 
something  which  they  were  not — that  not  a  voice 
was  heard  to  remonstrate,  and  to  testify  that  it  was 
not  so  in  the  days  of  Polycarp,  and  of  the  holy 
men  who  had  seen  the  apostles  and  others  who 
had  seen  the  Lord? 

14.     RESULTS   OF   THE   COUNCIL. 

The  results  of  the  Nicene  Council  are  not  left  to 
the  fossilized  past;  they  are  universally  felt  to  this 
day.  Arius,  whose  heresy  it  condemned,  finally 
stickled  only  for  an  iota :  insert  this  least  of  all 
letters  between  two  omicrons,  and  he  would  sub- 
scribe. But  on  the  field  of  Waterloo  the  surrender 
of  a  single  bar  in  a  farm-yard  gate  would  have 
been  more  fatal  to   Europe  than  the  betrayal  of 


THE  SYNODICAL  PERIOD.  93 

Gibraltar.  So  the  compromise  of  truth  by  one 
jot  or  tittle  added  or  taken  away,  would  have 
proved  the  triumph  of  Antichrist.  Not  the  hovioi- 
ousion,  but  the  homoousion  was  the  truth  of  God. 
Christ  is  not  of  like  substance  with  the  Father ;  He 
is  the  Father,  "  of  one  substance  "  with  Him  of 
whom  he  could  say,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one  "  ; 
"He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 
Such  is  and  ever  was  the  catholic  faith.  Further, 
the  first  pages  of  the  Common  Prayer,  after  the 
tables  of  lessons,  embody  the  Easter  Canons  of 
Nicaia;  its  sublime  symbol  is  recited  liturgically 
in  all  the  churches ;  in  the  Ordinal  is  to  be  found 
a  strict  conformity  to  its  laws  for  preserving  the 
succession  of  apostolic  bishops.  Its  great  canon, 
recognizing  the  patriarchates  under  the  law  of  al- 
ready existing  usage,  but  admitting  no  inequality 
among  them,  except  for  convenience  of  order,  has 
never  been  repealed.  It  makes  the  two  capitals, 
"  Old  Rome  "  and  "  New  Rome,"  as  equals,  first 
and  second  on  the  roll,  but  simply  because  they 
were  the  chief  seats  of  empire ;  and  this  great 
canon  is  the  law  of  the  Church  to  this  day,  and 
as  such  defines  those  Westerns  who  refuse  to  obey 
it  to  be,  not  catholic,  but  schismatical. 

15.     THE    PASCHAL   LETTERS. 

To  Alexandria  the  council  assigned  a  practical 

hegemony  of  the  churches.1    Its  bishop  was  to  send 

forth  annually  the  computation  for  Easter,  which 

was  thenceforth   to  be   observed   everywhere,    by 

1  See  Note  M'. 


94  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

the  Nicene  canon,  on  the  Lord's  day  after  the  full 
moon  following  the  vernal  equinox,  and  from  his 
decision  there  was  to  be  no  appeal.  Bishops  on 
the  Tiber  took  their  law  from  the  Nile.  The  Pope 
of  Alexandria,  for  so  its  bishop  is  called  to  this  day, 
exercised  no  pontifical  powers,  but  only  the  canon- 
ical powers  granted  by  the  synod ;  yet  if  there 
was  any  shadow  of  a  "  papacy  "  at  this  period,  it 
was  not  at  Rome.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  himself 
one  of  the  primates  of  Christendom  as  Bishop  of 
Constantinople,  said  justly  of  his  brother  patriarch, 
"  The  head  of  the  Alexandrian  church  is  the  head 
of  the  world."  At  a  later  period,  Justinian's  re- 
script also  recognizes  Constantinople  as  the  head 
of  all  the  churches. 

The  traditional  cultivation  of  astronomical  studies 
in  Egypt  was  thus  invested  with  fresh  interest  and 
utility.  To  the  Church  belongs  the  glory  of  giv- 
ing to  science  a  revived  and  vigorous  life  in  this 
sublime  department.  Men  of  science  had  kept  her 
fettered  to  the  Ptolemaic  system,  their  marvellous 
invention.  For  two  thousand  years  they  had  sworn 
by  it,  against  Pythagoras.  The  Court  of  Rome 
only  acted  for  them  when  it  blindly  imprisoned 
Galileo.  But  the  Court  of  Rome  is  not  the  Church, 
nor  has  Christianity  any  responsibility  for  its  fol- 
lies. And  let  us  never  forget  that  it  was  a  Christian 
presbyter  who  taught  to  scientists  the  true  system 
of  the  universe.  Copernicus  was  the  forerunner 
of  Newton,  and  a  herald  of  the  Reformation. 


THE  SYNODIC  A  L   rERIOD.  95 

16.     THE    PATRIARCHATES. 

Before  passing  to  the  other  Oecumenical  Coun- 
cils, let  us  pause  a  «moment  to  consider  these  pa- 
triarchal dignities,  and  what  their  name  imports. 
Tertullian  tells  us  of  the  natural  influence  exerted 
by  the  great  centres  upon  surrounding  churches ; 
and,  apart  from  civil  centres,  he  notes  the  impor- 
tance of  those  churches  which  had  been  founded 
by  the  apostles  themselves,  and  which  were  known 
as  "  Apostolic  Sees."  In  days  when  books  were 
few  and  intelligence  was  transmitted  with  difficulty, 
the  bishops  and  clergy  were  constantly  forced  to 
resort  to  these  strongholds  of  testimony,  for  the 
solution  of  practical  difficulties  and  for  studying  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  Those  who  were  near  to  Corinth 
repaired  to  that  city ;  and  so  others  went  to  Ephesus, 
Jerusalem,  or  Csesarea.  In  the  West,  Rome,  being 
the  only  Apostolic  See,  had  a  larger  clieutUc.  But 
for  the  preservation  of  order,  the  consecration  of 
bishops,  the  enforcement  of  canons,  and  such  mat- 
ters, the  great  centres  of  Antioch,  Alexandria,  and 
Rome  had  gained,  by  force  of  custom  and  con- 
venience, a  pre-eminence  which  the  Nicene  Coun- 
cil now  made  canonical.  The  parvenu  capital 
called  New  Rome,  lifted,  ipso  facto,  as  the  seat  of 
empire  into  equality  with  Old  Rome,  was  made 
superior,  in  order  of  mention,  to  the  older  sees  of 
the  East.  To  Old  Rome  was  conceded  a  primacy 
of  honour,  both  as  the  ancient  capital  and  as  an 
Apostolic  See,  which  Byzantium  was  not;  but  in 
other  respects  the  new  capital  was  made  its  equal, 
and  owed  it  no  obedience  whatever.     A  vast  juris- 


96  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

diction  was  adjudged  to  Alexandria,  and  a  very  re- 
stricted one  to  Rome,  because  "  ancient  usages  " 
were  strictly  recognized  in  defining  these  jurisdic- 
tions. The  subsequent  Councils  of  Constantino- 
ple and  Chalccdon  still  more  closely  limited  the 
Roman  jurisdiction,  and  defined  it  as  a  canonical 
grant,  and  by  no  means  an  apostolical  bequest. 
All  these  facts  must  be  borne  in  mind  with  refer- 
ence to  future  discussions ;  but  I  need  not  speak 
here  of  the  minor  patriarchates,  nor  of  the  honor- 
ary distinction  of  Jerusalem  as  the  "  mother  of  all 
churches."  I  have  already  shown  why  she  was 
not  invested  with  any  corresponding  powers.1  It 
is  only  necessary  to  note  that  Cyprus  was  pro- 
nounced autocepJialous,  having  no  dependency  even 
upon  Antioch,  its  natural  centre ;  while,  for  like 
reason,  all  insular  churches  were  rendered  equally 
independent  of  the  patriarchs.  By  this  fundamen- 
tal law,  the  Anglican  Church  reasserted  her  inde- 
pendence, of  which  she  had  never  been  deprived 
by  any  canonical  authority.2 

17.     THE   GREAT   COUNCILS. 

The  Councils  truly  (Ecumenical,  not  including 
the  normal  Council  of  Jerusalem,  were  six.  There 
never  has  been  an  (Ecumenical  Council  since  the 
division  of  the  West  from  its  Eastern  mother. 
Nor  in  the  nature  of  things  could  there  be.  How 
can  any  council  be  universal,  in  which  the  Orien- 
tals are  not  heard,  and  with  which  they  have  not 
consented?  But  of  the  six  which  are  truly  Cath- 
1  Lecture  II.  §  3.  2  See  Note  N'. 


THE  SYNODICAL  PERIOD.  97 

olic,  four  are  conspicuously  the  Great  Councils; 
and  these  Gregory,  Patriarch  of  Rome,  reckoned 
next  to  the  Four  Gospels.  The  fifth  and  sixth, 
like  the  codicils  of  a  will,  are  the  supplement  of 
the  foregoing;  unlike  codicils,  they  took  noth- 
ing away  from  their  originals.  They  enacted  no 
canons.  Such  Councils  only  confirm  and  adjust 
more  specifically  and  minutely  what  their  originals 
established. 

18.     THE    SECOND   COUNCIL. 

The  Second  Great  Synod  was  held  (A.  D.  381) 
under  Theodosius,  to  confirm  the  Nicene  faith 
and  to  complete  the  Great  Symbol,  bearing  testi- 
mony against  the  "  Macedonians,"  who  were  teach- 
ing a  new  doctrine  about  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 
Nicene  Creed,  as  left  by  the  Council,  did  not  touch 
this  subject,  which  we  must  infer  was  left  to  usage 
indifferently;  the  West  probably  closing  the  Con- 
fession with  the  language  of  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
and  the  East  reciting  that  of  the  Creed  of  Jerusa- 
lem, so  called.  The  Second  Council  now  adopted 
the  latter,  slightly  expounded  it,  and  set  it  forth  as 
the  unalterable  creed  of  Christendom.  So,  when 
we  speak  precisely,  we  call  it  the  Nicaeno-Con- 
stantinopolitan  Creed ;  commonly,  to  say  "  the 
Nicene  Creed"  is  sufficiently  correct.1 

This    council    forbade    all    bishops    to    meddle 
with  churches  beyond  their  jurisdiction,  and  it  re- 
affirmed the  Nicene  decrees  as  to  Alexandria  and 
Antioch,  and  also  as  to   "New    Rome."      It  was 
1  See  Note  O'. 
7 


98  INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

very  numerously  attended  by  the  bishops  of  the 
East,  and  was  made  Oecumenical  afterwards  by  its 
universal  acceptance  in  the  West.  It  is  noteworthy 
that  Theodosius,  who  was  now  Caesar,  had  carried 
on  the  work  of  Constantine  so  effectually  as  to 
make  the  Christianity  of  the  Empire  a  fixed  fact. 
Paganism  was  abolished,  and  temples  and  basilicas 
were  turned  into  churches ;  but,  like  snow-drifts 
behind  walls  and  fences,  that  linger  in  April,  while 
the  harvests  are  green  in  the  blade  about  them, 
Paganism  had  its  lurking  places.  And  far  down, 
till  the  Goths  came,  among  the  rustics  of  Magna 
Grcecia,  one  might  have  come  upon  a  group  of 
pagans,  wreathing  a  goat  or  a  lamb  for  sacrifice 
before  some  altar  of  the  old  idolatry,  concealed 
by  a  grove,  or  hidden  amid  masses  of  projecting 
rock ;   but  as  for  their  deities, 

''  They  lived  no  longer  in  the  faith  of  reason," 

and  another  Julian  was  impossible. 

19.    THE   COUNCIL  OF   EPHESUS. 

In  A.  D.  431  met  the  Third  Council,  at  Ephesus. 
Theodosius  was  still  Emperor.  It  settled  the 
dispute  which  Nestorius  had  raised  about  the  two 
natures  of  Him  who  is  "  perfect  God  and  perfect 
man,"  and  it  justified  the  expression  Theotokos  as 
applicable  to  the  mother  of  the  God-man.  This  is 
not  literally  rendered  "  Mother  of  God,"  which  is 
an  awkward  rendering  into  English  of  a  word  deli- 
cately compounded  in  the  Greek.  I  prefer  the 
beautiful  Latin  Deipara,  or  even  the  Greek  word 
reduced  to  the  form  Theotoce,  the  God-bearer.     It 


THE  SYNODIC  A  L  PERIOD.  99 

means  just  what  was  said  by  Elizabeth,  when  she 
saluted  the  Virgin  as  "  the  Mother  of  her  Lord." 


20.     THE   FOURTH   COUNCIL. 

The  Fourth  Council  was  that  of  Chalcedon, 
A.  D.  451.  Marcian  was  Emperor,  and  Leo  I. 
was  Bishop  of  Rome.  He  wanted  to  be  some- 
thing more  than  the  canons  had  made  him.  He 
honestly  felt  his  want  of  power.  The  Western 
churches  needed  his  influence  and  support.  Had 
he  been  a  "pope,"  a  mere  Gallican  papacy 
would  have  been  a  good  thing  for  the  moment. 
A  great  man  he  was,  but  not  a  little  peevish  about 
the  departing  dignity  of  his  see.  Naturally  he 
looked  with  some  surprise  upon  its  upstart  rival ; 
upon  a  new  Rome  where  no  apostolic  foot  had 
ever  been  planted  ;  and  naturally  enough  he  began 
to  boast  about  St.  Peter,  and  to  rest  his  dignity  on 
the  apostolic  antiquity  of  the  genuine  Rome,  so 
cruelly  stripped  of  its  ancient  headship.  Yet  he 
could  not  influence  the  Easterns  to  look  at  it  just 
so.  They  reverenced  the  older  seat  of  empire,  but 
there  was  a  glory  in  the  Christian  city  which  had 
supplanted  it,  and  which  held  its  unrivalled  site  on 
the  Bosporus  as  a  trophy  of  the  cross.  Besides,  the 
Easterns  regarded  Antioch,  rather  than  Rome,  as  the 
great  Apostolic  See,  where  St.  Peter  had  preached 
and  ministered,  where  St.  Paul  and  St.  Barnabas 
had  begun  their  world-wide  mission  ;  where,  while 
Rome  was  yet  without  a  clergy,  apostles  and  mar- 
tyrs had  been  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  Pen- 
tecostal oracles,  to  send  missionaries  to  the  West. 


IOO        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Doubtless  Old  Rome  had  its  dignities,  but  if  An- 
tioch  and  Alexandria  could  yield  their  apostolic 
honours  to  the  new  Rome,  so  also  must  Leo. 
Such,  as  we  shall  see,  was  the  spirit  of  this  Coun- 
cil, which  ratified  anew  what  had  been  done  at  Ni- 
caea  and  Constantinople,  assigning  to  Old  Rome, 
in  presence  of  Leo's  representatives  and  in  spite  of 
its  distasteful  features,  the  permanent  and  indelible 
character  of  one  among  many  apostolic  sees.  In 
no  respect  was  it  superior  to  its  more  ancient  sis- 
ters, but  it  merited  a  primacy  of  honour,  not  by 
any  divine  right,  but  by  concession  of  its  sister 
churches,  because  it  was  the  ancient  capital.  It 
was  not  any  more  than  divers  other  apostolic  cit- 
ies associated  with  St.  Peter.  It  had  never  been 
his  see,  for  his  mission  was  limited  to  Jewish 
Christians,  and  St.  Paul  had  the  earlier  claim  to 
be  its  founder,  with  his  larger  jurisdiction  as  the 
"  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles."  Such  was  the  thrice 
uttered  voice  of  the  Catholic  Church,  in  her  holy 
and  CEcumenical  Synods.  The  seal  and  final  rati- 
fication were  set  at  Chalcedon. 

21.     CHALCEDON. 

This  city  was  called  the  "  City  of  the  Blind," 
because  they  who  founded  it  had  overlooked  the 
more  eligible  site  of  Byzantium.  But  if  theirs  was 
the  modest  ambition  to  enjoy  rather  than  to  traf- 
fic, to  satisfy  taste  and  not  commercial  greed,  we 
must  own  that  they  were  wise  in  their  genera- 
tion. Lying  over  against  Byzantium,  like  Birken- 
head to  Liverpool,  or  Jersey  City  to  New  York, 


THE  SYNODICAL  PERIOD.  ioi 

but  on  a  more  lofty  site,  Chalccdon  was  pre-emi- 
nently a  city  for  those  who  have  eyes.  Like  Scu- 
tari to  modern  travellers,  they  who  preferred 
seeing  the  "  Golden  Horn  "  to  being  enclosed 
within  its  walls  found  it  the  spot  where  the  eye- 
sight might  best  be  regaled.  Let  me  quote 
Evagrius,  who  adorns  his  account  of  the  Fourth 
Council  by  a  rhetorical  portrait  of  its  advantages ; 
and  you  must  let  me  quote  it  in  full,  as  evidence 
of  that  delight  in  landscape  which  the  Gospel  has 
incidentally  done  so  much  to  develop,  among  all 
Christian  people.  The  church  of  St.  Euphemia,  in 
the  suburbs,  was  the  appointed  place  of  the  coun- 
cil, and  thus  speaks  the  historian :  x  — 

"  Directly  opposite  is  Constantinople,  and  the  charms 
of  the  sacred  precinct  are  heightened  by  the  view  of  so 
great  a  city.  The  site  of  the  church  is  a  beautiful  spot,  of 
easy  access  to  those  who  climb,  and  so  far  concealed  that 
before  they  are  prepared  for  it  they  find  themselves  in 
the  holy  enclosure.  Here  are  three  vast  fabrics,  one  open 
to  the  sky,  —  a  spacious  court,  adorned  with  colonnades, 
that  surround  it.  From  this  one  enters  a  similar  area, 
embellished  in  like  manner,  but  covered  by  a  roof.  To 
the  north  of  this,  and  facing  the  east,  is  the  martyr's  sepul- 
chre, under  a  dome  surmounting  its  circular  walls  and 
decorative  columns.  They  who  have  mounted  to  this 
site  survey  the  level  meads  beneath  them,  green  with 
herbage  or  undulating  harvests,  and  adorned  with  trees 
in  great  variety.  The  range  of  their  view  takes  in  as  well 
the  wooded  mountains,  towering  in  cliffs,  or  swelling  up- 
lands that  approach  them.  They  survey  the  sea  besides  ; 
here,  sheltered  from  the  breezes,  the  quiet  waters  with 
their  dark  blue  tint  softly  courting  the  beach  and  breaking 
1  Eccl.  Hist.,  Book  II.  cap.  3. 


102        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

upon  it  with  gentle  crispings  ;  or  there,  fiercely  swelling 
under  the  winds,  and  with  refluent  waves  throwing  back 
the  petty  scallops  and  the  sea-weed  that  line  the  shore. 
The  place  of  meeting  was  this  sacred  precinct  of  Eu- 
phemia." 

22.     EUTYCHES. 

Former  councils  had  set  forth  the  faith  of  ages 
in  the  Great  Symbol,  and  had  cleared  it  from  the 
ambiguous  interpretations  of  Nestorius.  It  had 
now  become  necessary  to  protect  it  from  the  re- 
actionary interpretations  of  Eutyches,  who  ac- 
knowledged only  a  single  nature  in  the  Incarnate 
God,  so  that  he  was  of  a  mixed  nature,  and  not 
"  perfect  God  and  perfect  man."  A  scandalous 
assembly,  which  has  always  been  known  as  "  a 
rabble  of  robbers,"  2  had  elevated  the  teaching  of 
Eutyches  into  a  public  scandal ;  hence  this  Fourth 
Council  had  become  a  necessity. 

23.     LEO,   PATRIARCH   OF   OLD   ROME. 

Leo,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  had  wished  it  might 
be  called  in  Italy,  but  the  traditional  East  was  ad- 
hered to,  in  place  and  in  language.  He  then  tried 
to  delay  the  meeting,  and  with  good  show  of  rea- 
son, for  Attila  and  his  terrible  Huns  had  invaded 
Gaul,  and  was  ravaging  the  fair. seats  of  the  Gal- 
lican  Church:  the  Western  bishops,  obviously, 
could  not  be  expected  to  attend.  But  Marcian, 
"with  pious  zeal,"  would  not  brook  delay.  Leo 
had  a  just  position  as  against  Eutyches,  and  he 
was  now  made  the  rather  popular  and  more  hon- 

1  Latrocinium. 


THE  SYNODICAL  PERIOD.  103 

ourable,  because  Dioscorus  of  Alexandria  had 
rashly  excommunicated  him.  Though  he  did  not 
appear  personally,  he  sent  presbyters  to  represent 
him,  as  good  Sylvester  and  other  predecessors  had 
done.  In  the  earliest  instance,  the  age  and  infirm- 
ities of  the  Roman  bishop  had  justified  this  course ; 
that  the  precedent  was  followed  in  order  to  draw 
councils  to  the  West,  is  a  surmise  which  Leo's  con- 
duct tends  to  make  highly  probable. 

Out  of  sympathy,  no  doubt,  Leo's  desire  that 
he  might  virtually  preside  in  the  Council  was  com- 
plied with.  With  others,  his  envoys  sat  as  co- 
presidents.  It  seemed  but  just,  and  balanced  the 
account  with  Dioscorus,  who  had  excommunicated 
him  after  presiding  over  the  Latrocinium.  The 
"  Fourth  (Ecumenical  Synod "  condemned  Eutyches 
and  closed  the  grand  series  of  the  Four  Synods, 
which  correspond  with  the  Four  Gospels.  But 
we  are  chiefly  to  note  its  spirit  in  these  two  par- 
ticulars:  (1.)  By  enthroning  the  Gospels,  as  at 
Ephesus,1  we  find  its  testimony  to  the  supremacy 
of  the  Scriptures  maintained  as  from  the  begin- 
ning, with  unalterable  fidelity,  in  the  noon  of  the 
fifth  century.  (2.)  It  reiterated,  and  in  spite  of 
all  Leo's  efforts,  in  spite  of  his  genius  and  his  or- 
thodoxy, forever  fixed  the  relations  of  the  Roman 
see  to  Catholic  Christendom,  in  unambiguous  and 
conclusive  words,  as  follows :  — 

"  We,  following  in  all  things  the  decisions  of  the  holy 
fathers,  and  acknowledging  the  canon  of  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty  bishops  which  has  just  been  read,  do  also  de- 
termine and  decree  the  same  things,  touching  the  privileges 

1  See  Note  P'. 


104       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

of  the  most  sacred  city  of  Constantinople,  the  New  Rome. 
For  the  fathers  justly  gave  the  primacy  to  the  elder 
Rome,  because  that  was  the  Imperial  city ;  and  the  (150) 
bishops,  moved  with  the  same  purpose  gave  equal  privi- 
leges to  the  most  sacred  throne  of  the  New  Rome  :  judg- 
ing, with  reason,  that  the  city  which  was  honoured  with 
the  sovereignty  and  senate,  and  which  enjoyed  equal 
privileges  with  the  elder  princely  Rome,  should  be  also 
magnified,  like  her,  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  be 
second  after  her." 

24    IMMUTABLE   CATHOLICITY. 

Nothing  could  be  more  clear.  If  ever  there  was 
a  moment  when  the  Catholic  Church  was  tempted 
to  create  a  Papacy,  it  was  this.  Great  and  good 
was  Leo,  though  censurable  in  his  ambition ;  the 
crisis  was  grave ;  the  Western  churches  were  threat- 
ened with  extinction.  But  no  !  The  Church  knew 
nothing  about  St.  Peter's  supremacy  ;  nothing  about 
any  succession  even  to  his  primacy.  The  primacy 
was  one  of  honour  purely,  and  granted  absolutely 
to  both  cities  on  civil  grounds  alone.  Leo's  envoys 
themselves  made  no  claim  to  any  divine  primacy, 
much  less  to  any  supremacy ;  they  only  made  a 
feeble  appeal  to  the  sixth  canon  of  Nicaea,  of  which 
they  produced  an  interpolated  copy.  This  forgery 
aimed  to  neutralize  the  synodical  gift  of  the  pri- 
macy to  Rome,  and  made  it  a  recognition  of  ab- 
original institution.  A  bishop  refuted  them  by 
producing  the  genuine  canon,  —  "  Let  the  ancient 
customs  prevail,"  etc.  They  were  silenced  with 
ignominy.  Another  affirmed,  that  when  at  Rome 
he  had  read  the  genuine  text  to  Leo  himself,  and 


THE  SYNODIC AL  PERIOD.  10$ 

that  Leo  approved  it.  He  must  not  be  blamed, 
therefore,  for  the  act  of  his  envoys.  After  inquiry 
whether  the  additional  canon  was  unanimous,  there 
was  an  outcry,  "We  all  adhere  to  this  decision." 
The  Roman  envoys  yet  pressed  their  remon- 
strance ;  they  were  answered,  "  What  we  have  said 
has  been  approved  by  the  whole  Council."  With 
this  truly  Roman  reply,  Quod  scripsi  scripsi,  the 
Catholic  Church  was  adjudged  to  have  no  supreme 
bishop,  and  not  even  an  honorary  primacy,  except 
by  a  synodical  concession  yielded  on  purely  civil 
considerations.  These  considerations  are  now  ob- 
solete, and  hence  the  primacy  itself  might  be 
awarded  to  Jerusalem  or  to  Antioch,  most  wisely, 
should  a  restoration  of  Catholic  unity  be  granted 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  before  the  return  of  the  Son 
of  God  to  complete  His  triumph  over  the  Evil 
One  and  the  present  evil  world. 

25.     TWO    SUPPLEMENTARY    COUNCILS. 

Our  review  of  the  Synodical  Period  is  not  com- 
pleted until  the  two  supplementary  Councils,  the 
Fifth  and  Sixth,  are  at  least  briefly  noted.  They 
are  of  a  purely  interpretative  character,  expound- 
ing and  limiting  the  work  of  the  Third  and  Fourth 
Councils.  In  the  Fifth  Council  (a.  d.  553),  under 
the  Emperor  Justinian,  the  "  Monophysite  "  aggres- 
sions of  a  century  received  a  partial  settlement.  It 
assembled  in  Constantinople  in  the  month  of  May, 
and,  as  it  confirmed  the  preceding  Councils,  it  is  an 
important  witness  to  the  universality  of  their  re- 
ception, in  spite  of  a  hundred  years  of  agitations, 


106       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

all  hateful  in  themselves,  all  working  for  truth  in 
the  result,  and  verifying  St.  Paul's  language  about 
heresies.  But  it  required  another  Council  to  throw- 
out  the  bane  of  "  Monothelite  "  refinements  upon 
the  now  inveterate  heresy  of  Eutyches.  The  Sixth 
and  last  General  Council  assembled  (November  7, 
A.  D.  680)  in  the  "  Trullus,"  or  dome-crowned  hall 
of  the  palace,  in  New  Rome.  Constantine  the 
Bearded  was  Emperor,  and  presided  in  person 
with  dignity.  It  is  gratifying  to  find  that  far  down 
in  the  seventh  century  the  Easterns  still  led  the 
whole  Church,  and  were  able  to  close  the  period 
of  CEcumenical  Synods  with  entire  fidelity  to  the 
spirit  of  Nicaea.  Their  testimony  settled  the  Mes- 
sianic controversies  forever.  Sifted  to  the  bran, 
the  Scriptures  were  found  to  have  given  no  un- 
certain sound.  The  Christ  of  the  Gospels  was  the 
God-man,  perfect  in  his  divine  nature  and  perfect 
in  his  human  nature ;  our  "  elder  brother,"  and  yet 
the  Father's  Consubstantial  and  Co-eternal  Son. 

26.     RATIFICATIONS. 

But,  as  bearing  on  subsequent  histories,  these 
auxiliary  Councils  yield  an  emphasis  to  the  action 
of  the  entire  synodical  series,  which  is  invaluable 
to  the  Catholic  of  our  ages,  who  is  called  to  resist 
the  heretical  system  of  Trent,  and  of  its  flagrant 
successor,  the  late  "  Council  of  Sacristans,"  1  and 
the  decrees  of  Pius  IX.  Observe  that  a  hundred 
years  after  the  ambitious  theory  of  Leo  had  been 
dismissed  with  ignominy  at  Chalcedon,  Catholicity 
1  The  late  Archbishop  of  Paris  (Darboy)  gave  it  this  name. 


THE  SYNODICAL   PERIOD.  10 J 

knew  nothing  of  it  in  doctrine  or  discipline.  Rome 
herself  had  repeatedly  ratified  and  confirmed  all 
that  had  been  done  in  spite  of  her,  and  now  she 
was  forced  to  set  her  seal,  with  final  and  conclusive 
force,  against  the  Leonine  assumptions.  At  this 
date,  then,  there  was  no  Papacy.  But  note  the 
clinching  facts  which  follow. 

The  Fifth  Council  was  called,  not  only  without 
reference  to  any  authority  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
but  against  his  sullen  and  stubborn  remonstrance. 
Vigilius,  by  name,  was  censured  in  its  acts,  and 
died  soon  after  in  disgrace ;  but  not  before  he  had 
humbly  subscribed  to  its  decisions,  and  ascribed 
his  own  previous  opposition  to  the  instigation  of 
Satan.  The  unprincipled  Pelagius,  who  had  been 
his  accomplice,  and  very  discreditably  became  his 
successor,  also  subscribed  to  the  Council,  and  en- 
forced its  acceptance ;  but  he  too  died  soon  after, 
and  has  left  a  name  stained  with  the  taint  of  an  un- 
lawful intrusion  into  his  office.  Both  were  Bishops 
of  Rome,  but  it  is  evident  they  were  not  Popes. 

27.    THE   FINAL  JUDGMENT. 

And  now  comes  the  final  judgment  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church  as  to  the  Bishops  of  Rome.  This  Trul- 
lan  Council,  called  without  any  warrant  from  Old 
Rome,  and  presided  over  by  the  Emperor  with  uni- 
versal approbation,  closed  its  work  by  a  memora- 
ble act,  of  which  even  Bossuet  and  the  Gallicans 
have  recognized  the  vast  significance.  Honorius, 
Bishop  of  Rome,  had  patronized  and  defended  the 
Monothelite  heresy,  but  his  successors  had  tried  to 


IOS       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

cover  up  his  errors  and  to  make  out  an  apology 
for  his  course.  This  made  matters  serious.  The 
Council  had  to  examine  his  letters,  and  their  final 
decision  was,  that  "  in  all  things  Honorius  has  fol- 
lowed the  opinions  of  Sergius,  and  has  sanctioned 
his  impious  (Monothelite)  teachings."  His  letters 
were  ignominiously  burned,  his  name  was  subjected 
to  perpetual  anathema,  and  Leo  II.,  his  successor 
(a.  D.  682),  not  only  ratified  this  solemn  testimony, 
but  added  his  own,  condemning  Honorius  because, 
instead  of  "  purifying  his  apostolic  see  by  the 
doctrine  of  apostolic  tradition,  he  had  yielded  its 
purity  to  defilement  by  a  profane  betrayal  of  the 
faith."  Over  and  over  again  have  the  Bishops  of 
Rome  ratified  this  anathema,  as  required  by  the 
forms  of  the  Liber  Diurnus,  which  every  pontiff 
was  for  ages  obliged  to  sign  on  his  election. 
There  is  no  escape  from  the  conclusion ;  and  with 
this  one  fact  before  us  down  falls  the  entire  sys- 
tem of  Trent,  and  all  that  has  been  based  upon  it 
since,  more  especially  in  the  decrees  of  the  late 
Pope  addressed  to  his  "  Vatican  Council."  To  im- 
pute any  "  supremacy,"  or  "  infallibility,"  to  the 
Bishops  of  Rome,  is  to  destroy  the  whole  Catholic 
system,  and  to  justify  all  the  heresies  and  schisms 
they  have  taught,  including  those  which  the  Church, 
in  her  Great  Synods,  has  so  mightily  rebuked.1 

28.     WHO   ARE   CATHOLICS. 

"When  shall  we  see  the  Church,"  said  St.  Ber- 
nard, "as  it  was   in  the  ancient  days?"     Should 
1  See  Note  Q'. 


THE  SYNODICAL   PERIOD.  109 

Rome  herself  return  to  catholic  unity,  and  to  un- 
feigned love  of  truth  and  right,  who  would  grudge 
to  her  the  old  canonical  primacy?  Let  her  Bish- 
ops follow  St.  Peter's  example  and  humility,  —  who 
would  deny  to  them  anything  that  St.  Peter  him- 
self ever  received  in  the  way  of  honour  and  filial  af- 
fection? Not  I,  for  one.  But  so  long  as  the  recent 
Latrocinium  of  the  Vatican  presumes  to  enforce  a 
creed  which  the  fathers  never  knew,  and  to  rend 
the  Church  with  new  divisions,  followed  up  by 
anathemas  most  impious  and  profane,  "  let  us  hold 
fast  the  profession  of  our  faith  without  wavering." 
We  are  the  Catholics,  —  we  who  accept  no  innova- 
tions, —  we  who  cry  out  with  the  Nicene  fathers, 
"  Let  the  ancient  customs  prevail."  The  great  con- 
temporary exponent  of  the  Four  Councils  is  Vincent 
of  Lerins.  His  "  Commonitory "  is  the  voice  of 
the  fifth  century  as  to  the  rule  of  faith,  and  the  echo 
of  the  Synodical  Period.  It  shows  that  he  only  is 
the  Catholic  who  maintains  the  truth  as  professed 
from  the  beginning,  "  always,  everywhere,  and  by 
all."  No  matter  how  few  in  number,  if  they  stand 
by  antiquity.  A  hundred  and  twenty  souls  once 
made  up  Catholicity.  Such  was  Athanasius  when 
"  all  forsook  him  and  fled,"— when  he  stood  against 
the  world. 


LECTURE    IV. 
THE   CREATION   OF  A  WESTERN   EMPIRE. 

i.  THE  BREAKING  UP  OF  OLD  ROME. 

PURPOSELY  I  have  avoided  choking  my  sub- 
ject with  the  intensely  interesting,  but  mys- 
tifying, details  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman 
Empire  in  the  West.  Hardly  was  the  Christian 
metropolis  founded  on  the  Bosporus,  when  the 
Goths  and  Vandals  began  to  make  their  terrible 
names  known  to  the  Empire,  and  to  receive  their 
momentary  repulse  from  Constantine.  The  in- 
undations of  barbarism  were  stayed  till  the  great 
Theodosius  had  left  a  divided  sway  to  his  sons. 
The  triumphant  siege  and  pillage  of  Rome  by 
Alaric  begins  a  new  period  of  history  for  the 
world.  Augustine  trembled  in  Africa  before  the 
downfall  of  an  imperial  system  long  supposed  to 
be  eternal,  —  the  last  development  of  law  for  man- 
kind. He  composed  his  "  City  of  God  "  to  illus- 
trate the  only  durable  empire,  and  to  disprove  the 
outcries  of  the  heathen  remnant  in  the  West,  that 
the  contempt  of  Numa's  gods  had  occasioned  the 
disasters  of  the  age. 


THE  CREA  TION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.     1 1 1 

2.     THE   GOTHS,    VANDALS,   AND   HUNS. 

The  Goths  were  Christians  of  a  sort :  they  pro- 
fessed Arianism,  and  their  conquests  were  some- 
how capable  of  being  harmonized  with  the  Impe- 
rial power  of  New  Rome.  But  had  they  made 
themselves  permanent  masters  of  the  West,  Arian- 
ism, which  the  Council  of  Nicaea  had  proved  to 
be  at  war  with  the  catholic  faith  of  Scripture, 
must  have  overspread  the  West.  It  pleased  God 
to  subject  Rome  to  fresh  humiliations  under  the 
savages  of  Genseric,  who  also  ravaged  Northern 
Africa  and  its  primitive  seats  of  Latin  Christianity. 
Then  came  the  onset  of  Attila,  "  the  Scourge  of 
God,"  more  general  in  its  sweep  of  flame  than  all 
that  had  devoured  before.  The  Goths  and  Ostro- 
goths, however,  who  enjoyed  a  temporary  occupa- 
tion of  Italy  for  two  generations,  made  themselves 
a  satrapy  of  the  Empire,  and  after  the  extinction 
of  Augustulus  somewhat  prolonged  the  Imperial 
fiction  in  the  West. 

Meantime,  God  was  raising  up  the  Franks. 
They  became  a  Christian  race  under  Clovis,  in 
whose  name  we  recognize  that  of  Louis,  familiar- 
ized to  us  by  subsequent  history.  If  one  con- 
siders the  changes  brought  upon  Europe  by  the 
invasions  of  Italy,  Gothic  and  Teutonic,  —  by  the 
overflow  upon  Spain,  from  all  sides,  of  Goths, 
Moors,  Franks,  and  nameless  hordes  brought  with 
them  and  after  them,  —  as  also  the  correspond- 
ing movements  along  the  Rhine  and  through  all 
Germany  and  ancient  Belgium,  —  the  rise  of  such 
a  creature  and   creator   as  could    mass  them  and 


112        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

give  shape  to  their  destinies  must  be  recognized 
as  proof  of  a  God  who  rules  and  overrules  the 
universe.  Referring  you  to  the  usual  sources  of 
information  upon  this  meagre  outline  of  the  grand 
movements  of  Providence  for  developing  Modern 
Europe,  we  now  come  to  the  dread  and  imposing 
career  of  Charlemagne.  It  was  his  to  reconstruct 
after  devastation,  to  regulate  after  nomadic  chaos, 
and  to  prepare  the  way  for  forms  of  civilization 
which  are  perpetuated  even  in  our  own  times. 

3.     RETROSPECT. 

Let  us  return  for  a  moment  to  the  period  of  the 
Councils,  and  trace  the  hand  of  Providence  in 
putting  an  effectual  close  to  it  by  what  is  called 
the  Disunion  of  East  and  West.  Since  that  "  dis- 
union "  —  the  mild  word  for  a  schism,  which  sus- 
pends fun ctional  unity,  but  does  not  destroy  organic 
life  and  spiritual  communion  —  it  is  manifest  that 
no  oecumenical  or  catholic  council  has  been  pos- 
sible. The  Greeks  might  meet  in  Eastern  synods, 
or  the  West  in  Occidental  ones;  but  no  catholic 
action  is  possible  without  the  free  and  united  con- 
sent of  Greeks  and  Latins.  The  old  patriarchates 
of  the  East  must  be  heard  in  any  synod  truly 
oecumenical;  but  even  they  cannot  make  any 
canons  or  customs  for  Christendom  without  the 
free  acceptance  of  all  the  Western  churches.  The 
patriarchate  of  Rome  never  was  allowed  to  con- 
sent in  the  name  of  the  entire  West,  for  the  Cath- 
olic Church  restricted  its  jurisdiction  to  Lower 
Italy  and  adjacent  islands ;    if,  indeed,  the  "  sub- 


THE  CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.     113 

urbicarian "   limits    included  so    great    a  range   as 
this. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  must  take  a  retrospect- 
ive glance  at  certain  provincial  councils,  ambitious 
of  the  cecumenical  name,  in  which  the  Synodical 
Period  found  its  limits ;  like  a  majestic  river,  los- 
ing itself  at  last  amid  marshes  and  lagoons,  in  petty 
mouths  and  friths,  which  leave  undistinguishable 
the  unity  of  its  current,  or  the  point  where  the 
name  of  the  river  belongs  to  any  one  division  of  its 
tides. 

4.     MINOR   COUNCILS. 

The  Fifth  and  Sixth  Councils  failed  to  enact 
canons,  and  hence  a  council  (a.  d.  692)  which 
aimed  to  supply  this  defect  is  called  the  Quini- 
Sext,  to  indicate  its  supplementary  character,  as  a 
sequel  to  both.  It  was  held  in  Constantinople. 
The  Latins,  however,  would  not  accept  it.  It 
displeased  Rome,  because  it  maintained  the  old 
canonical  equality  of  New  Rome,  and  also  the 
rights  of  the  married  clergy,  which  Rome  was 
trying  to  suppress  in  Italy.  Early  in  the  next 
century,  the  walls  of  churches  in  the  East  and 
West  alike  had  become  disfigured  by  wretched 
caricatures  of  our  Lord  and  of  the  saints,  known  as 
Icons ;  not  graven  or  molten  images,  but  misera- 
ble daubs  with  tinsel  decorations ;  bits  of  tinfoil 
silvered  or  gilded,  often  covering  all  but  the  face 
and  hands  of  the  absurd  figures.  Against  these 
objects  all  the  canons  of  good  taste  cried  out; 
but  every  page  of  the  early  fathers  which  as- 
sailed the  heathen   images   not  less   bore  witness 

S 


I  14      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

that  Christianity  abhorred  such  things.  It  is  dis- 
graceful to  reflect,  however,  that  it  was  left  to  a 
semi-barbarian  Emperor  to  imitate  the  zeal  of 
Epiphanius,  who  had  torn  to  shreds  the  first  thing 
of  the  kind  of  which  we  hear  in  history.  Leo  III., 
the  Isaurian,  issued  his  edict  (a.  D.  724)  against 
them.  It  caused  him  endless  confusions  and  dis- 
tresses to  sustain  this  policy,  till  he  died,  in  A.  D. 
741.  The  excesses  of  his  zeal,  not  always  accord- 
ing to  knowledge,  had  rendered  the  name  of  "  the 
Iconoclasts "  not  a  little  odious,  when  his  very 
able  but  unfortunate  son  and  successor,  Constan- 
tine  V.,  to  whom  clings  the  scornful  name  Copro- 
nymus,  called  a  council  to  settle  the  matter.  It  was 
attended  by  more  than  three  hundred  Eastern 
bishops,  who  condemned  the  Icons,  with  unques- 
tionable fidelity  to  antiquity.  This  council  has  no 
claim  to  oecumenical  character;  but  when,  not  long 
afterwards,  the  Western  churches  bore  precisely 
the  same  testimony  in  one  of  the  most  memorable 
of  Western  councils,  we  have  irrefragable  evidence, 
putting  both  together,  that  such  was  the  unbiassed 
testimony  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  eighth 
century,  and  long  after  its  close. 

5.     IRENE. 

Leo  IV.,  the  feeble  son  of  the  fifth  Constan- 
tine,  was  the  "  husband  of  his  wife,"  the  Athenian 
Irene,  who  did  not  wait  till  he  died  to  "  reign  in  his 
stead.''  When  he  died,  under  a  dose  administered 
by  her,  she  became  regent  for  her  son,  and  with  a 
taste  for  art  quite  feminine,  but  hardly  Attic,  she 


THE  CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMTIRE. 


115 


made  herself  the  fanatical    patroness  of  pictures 
which  Zeuxis  would  have  laughed  at.     Beautiful, 
but  infamous,  the  poisoner  of  her  husband  after- 
wards slew  her  son,  the  boy  Emperor,   usurping 
his  throne  and  making  herself  the  first  Empress  in 
the  line  of  the  Caesars.     She  bewitched  the  court, 
and  was  able  to  carry  all  before  her  by  corrupting 
many  of  the  clergy  and  banishing  powerful  nobles. 
At  one  time  she  had  a  scheme  to  marry  the  great 
King  of  the    Franks ;    but,   Bluebeard  as   he   was 
with  his  nine  wives,  he  had  tastes  and  schemes  of 
his  own,  and  did  not  care  to  be  poisoned.      Her 
name  means  peace,  but  Alecto  and  her  sister  furies 
all  seemed  incarnate  in  her.     This  was  the  Jezebel 
whom   Adrian,    the    Roman    patriarch,    forgetting 
the  warnings  of  the  Apocalypse,  encouraged  and 
patronized   in  mingling   her   cup    of  fornications. 
Thank  God,  our  English  Alcuin  rebuked  her  for 
presuming  to  teach  in  the  church,  against  the  in- 
spired command  of  St.  Paul.     This  wicked  woman 
convened  a  council  at  Nicaea  (a.  d.  787),  which  ex- 
cept in  its  name  has  no  claim  to  any  association 
with  the  great  Nicene  Synod.     Just  as  "  Romulus- 
Augustus  "  was  the  name  of  the  poor  creature  in 
whom  Old   Rome  perished  ignominiously,  so  the 
council  called   with  solemn   irony   Deutcro-Niccne 
overruled  the  second  commandment  and  all  Chris- 
tian antiquity,  and  established  image-worship. 

6.   A  COUNTER  COUNCIL. 

The  Roman  patriarch  accepted  it,  and  officially 
proclaimed  its  acceptance  in  the  West;  but  Adrian 


Il6       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

had  a  master  beyond  the  Alps,  and  the  great  West 
was  soon  able  to  speak  for  itself  in  a  free  council. 
It  was  called  by  Charles,  King  of  the  Franks, 
and  assembled  at  Frankfort,  a.  d.  794.  It  over- 
ruled Adrian  and  his  officious  pretensions,  refuting 
Irene's  council,  —  corroborating,  in  fact,  the  testi- 
mony of  the  previous  council  of  Constantine  the 
Fifth.  Of  all  councils  not  oecumenical,  Frankfort 
comes  nearest  to  being  such ;  and  it  worthily  and 
nobly  brings  to  a  close  the  period  of  the  synodical 
testimony  of  the  whole  undivided  Church. 


7.    THE   RULE  OF   FAITH. 

What  then  was  the  rule  of  faith  recognized  and 
established  by  all  the  CEcumenical  Councils?  The 
answer  comes  to  us,  as  from  that  lofty  seat  on  which 
the  Gospels  were  enthroned  at  Ephesus  and  at 
Chalcedon,  when  Vincent  of  Lerins  replies,  "  The 
Holy  Scriptures."  But  when  we  come  to  inter- 
pretation, What  is  the  rule?  he  answers,  "What 
from  the  beginning  has  been  received  always, 
everywhere,  and  by  all." 

8.    THE   MAXIM   OF  VINCENT. 

Such  is  the  great  principle  established  by  Tertul- 
lian,  in  his  "  Prescription  against  Heretics."  But, 
as  I  reminded  you,  it  is  convenient  to  quote  it  in 
the  aphorism  of  Vincent;  his  test  of  catholicity 
being  so  terse  in  statement,  so  clear  in  application, 
and  so  conclusive  in  its  force.     It  comes  to  us  just 


THE  CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.     I  I  7 

at  the  epoch  that  closed  the  Four  Great  Councils, 
and  certifies  us  as  to  the  whole  spirit  of  their  legis- 
lation in  words  that  are  "nails  and  goads."  Ob- 
serve then,  (1)  negatively,  that  no  one  bishop  or 
see  was  of  any  decisive  weight  in  the  definition  of 
doctrine.  "  No,"  says  Vincent,  quoting  St.  Paul, 
"  nor  an  angel  from  heaven,  should  he  teach  any- 
thing that  was  not  from  the  beginning."  But 
(2)  positively,  catholic  doctrine  must  be  that 
which  has  been  "  always  held  " ;  (3)  and  that  not 
merely  in  one  church,  see,  or  patriarchate,  but 
"  everywhere " ;  and  (4)  not  merely  everywhere, 
by  some  individual  doctor,  speaking  his  private 
opinion,  or  presuming  to  speak  for  others,  but 
"by  all,"  —  that  is  to  say,  with  the  Amen  of  the 
whole  Church  ratifying  and  confirming  the  same. 
Such  was  catholicity  then,  as  understood  by  the 
undivided  Catholic  Church;  and  with  this  under- 
standing we  shall  better  comprehend  the  melan- 
choly divisions  we  must  soon  consider. 

9.     THE   COUNCIL   OF   FRANKFORT. 

Let  us  dwell  a  little  longer  on  the  Council  of 
Frankfort.  It  stands  for  the  old  landmark.  I 
claim  for  it  no  secondary  place  in  church  his- 
tory; it  shows  a  far-reaching  proleptical  wisdom, 
of  which  God  only  could  have  been  the  author. 
Let  it  be  praised  for  its  invaluable  testimony  to 
the  faith,  as  essentially  unaltered  at  its  date,  and 
for  its  thunders  of  remonstrance  against  Irene's 
degenerate  bishops:  "We  have  no  such  custom, 
neither  the  churches  of  God." 


Il8      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

It  is  gratifying  to  an  Anglo-Catholic  moreover, 
that  he  may  identify  in  this  epoch  the  first  move- 
ment of  the  Church  of  England  towards  her  present 
position  in  Christendom.  Nobly  had  she  earned  her 
Jicgemony  by  the  exceptional  spirit  of  her  history 
in  this  century  so  degenerate  elsewhere.  To  her 
Winfrid,  apostle  and  martyr  of  Saxony  and  the 
Rhineland,  Charles  knew  that  he  and  his  Franks 
owed  their  origin  as  Christians.  The  "  Low  Coun- 
tries "  also,  and  their  see  of  Utrecht,  so  honourably 
distinguished  even  in  its  decay,  were  the  product 
of  English  missionary  zeal  and  intrepidity.  What 
Alexandria  was  at  Nicaea,  England  was  at  Frank- 
fort. What  Athanasius  was  under  Constantine, 
that  our  Alcuin  was  under  Charlemagne.  The 
council  was  called  by  this  great  King  of  the 
Franks,  without  any  idea  of  waiting  for  a  sum- 
mons from  Adrian,  the  Roman  bishop.  Nor  did 
Adrian  interpose  any  remonstrance,  even  when  it 
overruled  him  and  nullified  his  obsequious  and 
heretical  consent  to  Irene's  dogma.  This  all-im- 
portant fact  proves  that  the  Roman  patriarch  was 
not  yet  a  "  pope."  Nobody  dreamed  that  he  alone 
could  summon  councils;  none  held  that  his  appro- 
bation decided  doctrine,  or  that  communion  with 
him  was  the  test  of  Catholicity.  Charles  conducted 
himself  in  this  business,  from  first  to  last,  as  the 
imperial  bishop,  —  the  episcopus  ab  extra,  —  doing 
what  Constantine  had  done  before  him.  But  in 
things  spiritual  Alcuin  led  the  council,  under  the 
Holy  Spirit. 


THE  CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.     IIQ 

10.     ALCUIN. 

This  great  light  of  the  eighth  century  was  born 
at  York,  and  nurtured  in  theology  under  Egbert, 
its  learned  and  pious  archbishop.  Egbert  is  the 
link  between  Alcuin  and  Bede  the  Venerable,  who 
seventy  years  previously  had  illuminated  our  Saxon 
forefathers  with  the  sunbeams  of  his  godliness  and 
learning.  A  darker  age  was  soon  to  follow ;  but 
Alcuin  now  did  a  work  for  England  and  for  Chris- 
tendom which  enabled  the  immortal  Alfred,  in  the 
succeeding  century,  to  repel  in  some  degree,  by 
his  own  piety  and  genius,  the  ignorance  and  bar- 
barism to  which  for  a  time  his  clergy  were  about 
to  succumb.  Alcuin  had  early  attracted  the  admi- 
ration of  Charles,  who,  while  he  yet  signed  "  his 
mark  "  and  could  not  write  his  name,  invited  him 
to  the  Frankish  court,  made  him  the  preceptor  of 
his  household,  learned  all  that  he  knew  of  sci- 
ence and  theology  under  his  mastership,  and  made 
him  the  conscience-keeper  "  whom  the  king  de- 
lighted to  honour."  In  defeating  an  attempt  to  re- 
vive Nestorianism  he  became  conspicuously  chief 
at  Frankfort  where  for  the  second  time  he  refuted 
the  heresy  of  Felix,  Bishop  of  Urgel.  It  is  hardly 
to  be  doubted  that  Charles  summoned  the  council 
at  Alcuin's  suggestion.  And  here  let  us  note  what 
more  we  owe  to  this  illustrious  light  and  glory  of  a 
degenerate  age. 

11.     UNIVERSITIES,  AND   THEIR  ORIGIN. 

He  was  the  parent  of  universities :  he  founded  a 
school  of  learning  in  the  palace  at  Aix-la-Chapelle, 


120       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

and  by  his  influence  similar  academies  were  insti- 
tuted in  France  and  Italy.  When  he  modestly  re- 
tired from  the  court  to  Tours  in  France,  he  there 
established  a  school  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Martin ; 
but  he  kept  up  his  influence  with  Charles  by  a 
constant  correspondence. 

Let  me  quote  one  of  his  letters,1  which  throws  a 
flood  of  light  upon  his  work,  upon  his  times,  and 
upon  the  state  of  things  among  our  ancestors  in 
the  England  of  that  day.     He  says  :  — 

"The  employments  of  your  Alcuin  in  his  retirement 
are  suited  to  his  humble  sphere,  but  they  are  neither 
ignoble  nor  useless.  Here  I  spend  my  time  in  teaching 
the  noble  youths  about  me  the  mysteries  of  grammar,  and 
inspiring  them  with  a  taste  for  the  learning  of  antiquity. 
I  explain  to  them  the  system  and  revolutions  of  the  starry 
hosts  in  the  heavenly  vault,  and  to  others  I  open  the  se- 
crets of  divine  wisdom  contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
I  endeavour  to  suit  my  instructions  to  the  capacities  of  my 
pupils,  hoping  to  make  them  ornaments  of  your  court 
and  of  the  Church  of  God.  In  this  work  I  find  great  lack 
of  many  things  which  I  enjoyed  in  my  native  country  ; 
particularly  of  those  excellent  books  which  could  there 
be  had  under  the  care  and  expense  of  Egbert,  my  great 
master.  May  it  please  your  Majesty,  therefore,  to  allow 
me  to  send  some  of  my  pupils  into  England  to  get  the 
books  we  want,  that  so,  animated  by  your  own  most  ar- 
dent love  of  learning,  we  may  transplant  the  flowers  of 
Britain  into  France.  Thus  their  fragrance  shall  no 
longer  be  confined  to  York,  but  may  perfume  the  palaces 
of  Tours." 

And  so  chiefly  to  him  we  owe  the  subsequent 
learning  of  Europe.     He  is  described  as  an  orator, 
1  See  Note  R'. 


THE  CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.     121 

mathematician,  philosopher,  and  the  greatest  divine 
of  his  times.  Young  gentlemen,  reflect  that  here, 
in  Ann  Arbor,  where  within  the  memory  of  living 
men  stood  the  wigwams  of  savages,  if  you  arc  able 
to  pursue  all  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences  with  the 
accumulated  advantages  of  modern  attainments,  it 
is  because  Alcuin  flourished  a  thousand  years  ago, 
and  by  his  genius,  "  like  a  light  shining  in  a  dark 
place,"  laid  up,  as  in  magazines  against  years  of 
famine  that  were  to  follow,  the  harvests  which 
he  gathered  like  Joseph  for  the  salvation  of  his 
brethren. 

12.    THE   CAROLINE   BOOKS. 

At  Frankfort,  then,  truth  was  rescued  from  its 
perils  by  this  same  master  spirit.  Four  books, 
probably  the  work  of  Alcuin,1  and  known  as  "  the 
Caroline  books,"  were  composed,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Charles,  to  sustain  the  second  canon  of 
Frankfort,  which  condemns  the  Deutero-Nicene 
Council  and  all  worship  of  images.  Thus  Adrian 
himself  was  taught  to  obey  the  ancient  constitu- 
tions by  the  unanimous  and  free  testimony  of  the 
Gallican  and  Anglican  bishops.  "  The  Church  of 
God  doth  altogether  abominate  the  doctrine  that 
images  ought  to  be  worshipped,"  says  Roger 
Hoveden,  an  old  English  historian  of  the  twelfth 
century;  and  Matthew  of  Westminster,  in  the  thir- 
teenth, praises  Alcuin  for  writing  against  the  new 
heresy,  "  fortified  by  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures." 

1  See  Note  S'. 


122       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

By  all  sorts  of  refinements  and  hair-splittings 
Roman  theologians  have  subsequently  defended 
Adrian  and  accepted  the  Council  of  Irene,  pre- 
tending that  Alcuin  and  his  contemporaries  did 
not  understand  the  decrees  they  so  indignantly 
rejected,  and  that  they  only  objected  to  rendering 
divine  worship  to  images.  On  the  contrary,  says 
a  very  learned  authority,  "  Nothing  can  be  stronger 
than  the  opposition  of  the  Caroline  Books  to  every 
act  or  appearance  of  worship  as  paid  to  images, 
even  to  bowing  the  head  before  them  or  burn- 
ing lights."  Alas  !  the  Western  churches,  in  their 
downfall  under  the  Paparchy,  have  gone  far  be- 
yond the  Greeks  in  this  species  of  corruption.  To 
this  day,  the  Greeks  protest  against  graven  images, 
and  adhere  only  to  the  use  of  pictures,  which  they 
are  learning  to  excuse  as  meant  for  ornament,  and 
so  to  be  respected  and  not  profaned ;  while  some 
of  their  theologians  merely  reject  "  Iconoclasm," 
or  the  wanton  destruction  of  pictures,  approaching 
very  nearly  to  the  limit  of  our  own  use  of  stained 
glass.  For  the  Greeks  there  is  some  excuse :  un- 
learned and  groaning  for  centuries  under  the  Turk- 
ish yoke,  they  have  been  little  able  to  study  their 
own  Fathers  or  the  Holy  Scriptures.  One  wonders 
that  they  can  be  as  enlightened  and  faithful  as  they 
are,  compared  with  the  Latins,  who  have  done  their 
utmost  to  make  them  as  corrupt  as  themselves. 
But  a  better  day  is  begun :  let  us  pray  for  the  ven- 
erable churches  of  the  East,  and  repay  them,  as  did 
the  Roman  matron,  who  bared  her  chaste  bosom  to 
her  aged  father  in  prison,  and  gave  him  fresh  tides 
of  life  in  requital  of  the  life  she  owed  to  him. 


THE  CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EM  TIRE.      \2X 

13.     THE  DEGENERACY   OF  THE   EAST. 

Reflecting  on  Irene's  fatal  success,  one  wonders 
how  the  East  could  so  far  have  forgotten  herself  as 
to  descend  in  any  councils  from  the  high  themes 
that  had  once  agitated  her  glorious  churches  and 
the  immortal  doctors  of  her  schools.  Think  of 
Athanasius,  gravely  asked  to  come  down  from  his 
eagle-gaze  upon  the  sunlight  of  God's  throne  to 
disputes  about  the  homage  due  to  counterfeits, 
—  the  portraits  of  players  and  prostitutes,  often 
profanely  called  the  Icons  of  Christ  and  his  Virgin 
Mother !  Nothing  can  excuse  the  degeneracy  of 
which  the  Pscudo-Niccne  Synod  is  a  memorial, 
but  perhaps  we  can  explain  it.  I  have  already 
noted  that  there  stands  at  Rome  a  landmark,  which 
even  in  Lord  Byron's  day  was  only  — 

"  A  nameless  column  with  a  buried  base." 
Excavations  have  since  unearthed  that  base,  and 
disclosed  the  hateful  name  which  it  commemorates. 
It  is  the  pillar  of  Phocas,  —  a  creature  with  whom 
Irene  may  be  properly  paired  as  a  twin.  Two 
names  in  Christian  history  more  infamous  than 
these  it  would  be  hard  to  find,  till  we  come  to  the 
century  of  the  earliest  Popes.  Now  that  pillar  of 
Phocas  marks  the  beginning  of  two  calamities  un- 
equalled in  their  effects  upon  all  succeeding  ages 
of  the  Church.  (1.)  The  first  was  the  appearance, 
under  the  patronage  of  Phocas,  of  a  Roman  bishop 
who  did  not  tremble  to  bring  upon  himself  the 
name  of  "  the  forerunner  of  Antichrist,"  which 
his  predecessor,  Gregory  the  Great,  hardly  cold  in 
his  grave,  had  bequeathed  to  any  one  who  should 


124       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

accept  the  title  of  "  Universal  Bishop."  (2.)  The 
second  was  the  rise  of  Mohammed,  who  just  then 
was  forging  his  Koran.  These  were  possibly  the 
horrible  figures  which  revealed  to  St.  John  in 
Patmos  the  period  of  decay  and  corruptions  of 
Christianity  which  were  coming  to  pass.1  He 
shuddered  to  record  them,  and  well  may  we  to  read 
the  fulfilment.  If  it  were  not  for  the  Apocalypse, 
I  should  not  be  able  to  support  my  faith  that  the 
Church  of  God  is  still  His  Church  ;  so  long  has  she 
suffered  iniquity  to  rule  supreme  where  once  her 
apostles  and  martyrs  bore  testimony  to  the  Gospel 
in  its  power. 

14.     MOHAMMED. 

Mohammed  owed  his  abhorrence  of  idolatry  to 
heretical  Christians,  who  were  his  first  instructors. 
The  Nestorian  monks,  who  had  rejected  the  truth 
about  "  the  God-bearing  Mary,"  had  seen  a  re- 
actionary tendency  among  the  orthodox  to  pay  her 
an  almost  idolatrous  homage.  Hence  their  in- 
flamed orthodoxy  on  this  point,  that  "  Mary  is  to 
be  honoured,  not  worshipped."  When  her  Icons 
began  to  be  multiplied  and  derided  by  these,  it 
was  easy  to  infer  that  what  heretic  Nestorians  de- 
nounced should  be  patronized  by  the  orthodox; 
and  when  the  Saracens  began  to  despoil  and  over- 
throw Christian  churches,  destroying  the  Icons  in 
obedience  to  Mohammed,  it  was  human  nature  to 
fall  into  the  opposite  extreme,  and  to  begin  to  adore 
what  heretics  and  Mohammedans  abhorred.  Alas 
that  Mohammed  had  felt  what  Christians  began  to 

1  Rev.  xvii.  6,  7. 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      1 25 

forget,  the  unspeakable  degradation  of  humanity 
when  it  permits  the  mind  of  man  to  offer  religious 
worship,  on  any  pretext,  to  anything  less  than 
God  Almighty !  It  seems  to  have  been  under  a 
divine  impulse  that  Islam  came  forth  avenging 
the  Decalogue,  under  a  mission  from  the  insulted 
Lord  who  makes  "  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise 
Him." 

15.     SUCCESSES    OF   MOHAMMED. 

Observe  the  marvellous  sweep  of  the  besom  he 
wielded  among  the  dim  candlesticks  of  many  an 
Eastern  and  Western  Sardis  or  Laodicea.  The 
year  of  the  Hegira  is  A.  D.  622,  and  ten  years  later 
the  impostor  perishes.  One  year  afterwards  Jeru- 
salem had  fallen  before  the  terrible  Caliph ;  Caesa- 
rea  and  Antioch  followed,  and  all  Syria  was  mas- 
tered by  Islam.  In  all  history  is  there  a  scene  more 
strikingly  dramatic  than  that  which  narrates  how 
the  patriarch  Sophronius  confronted  Omar,  after 
fruitlessly  defending  the  Holy  City  and  being 
forced  to  capitulate.  The  venerable  bishop  met 
Omar  in  the  gates,  the  barbarian  entering  in  his 
raiment  of  camel's  hide,  followed  by  his  locust 
hordes.  "  Truly,"  said  the  holy  man,  "  I  see  the 
abomination  that  maketh  desolate,  as  spoken  of 
by  Daniel  the  prophet,  standing  in  the  holy 
place."  Truly,  as  never  before,  "  Jerusalem  was 
now  trodden  down  by  the  Gentiles."  Next,  Alex- 
andria is  taken;  her  glorious  candle  is  put  out; 
the  Alexandrian  library  perishes.  On  goes  the 
devouring  fire.  For  the  present  Constantinople  is 
repeatedly  assaulted  in  vain ;  but  Northern  Africa 


126       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

is  devoured  before  it  Carthage  and  Hippo,  al- 
ready laid  waste  by  Genseric,  and  all  those  an- 
cient churches,  are  consumed.  In  A.  D.  710,  the 
Saracens  land  at  Gibraltar;  all  Europe  is  threat- 
ened with  desolation;  Spain  is  overrun,  and  in 
A.  D.  725  the  hordes  of  Islam  have  penetrated  into 
France  and  captured  Autun.  But  here  God  raises 
up  Charles  Martel,  who  strikes  the  Saracens  with 
a  decisive  blow  at  Tours,  and  finally,  laud  be  to 
God !  he  drives  them  out  of  France.  He  dies  in 
A.  D.  741,  but  in  the  next  year  his  grandson,  whom 
we  call  Charlemagne,  is  born,  destined  to  settle  the 
Carolingian  line  of  kings  in  France,  and  in  many 
particulars  to  revolutionize  Europe  and  the  world. 
It  is  important  to  recall  all  these  facts,  if  we  would 
comprehend  the  degradation  of  the  East,  the  epoch 
of  the  Council  of  Frankfort,  and  the  blessings  we 
owe  to  the  Venerable  Bede,  to  Egbert,  and  to 
Alcuin. 

16.    ISNIK  AND  DAN. 

We  see,  perhaps,  in  this  review,  how  it  came  to 
pass  that  Irene's  clergy  could  yield  to  her  corrup- 
tions. It  was  testifying  against  Mohammed  and 
the  Nestorians.  But  go  now  to  miserable  Isnik, 
that  once  was  Nicaea,  and  see  to  what  God  has 
reduced  her,  just  as,  of  old,  he  gave  his  temple  to 
the  flames,  and  to  long  years  of  ruin,  under  the 
Chaldeans.  The  tribe  of  Dan  has  lost  its  name 
in  Israel  because  it  introduced  the  contempt  of  the 
second  commandment,  and  polluted  truth  with 
idols.1     So  Nicaea  is  blotted  out. 

1  Compare  Gen.  xlix.  16,  Rev.  vii.  8,  and  Judges  xviii.  30. 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.       \2J 

17.     FRANKFORT  ONCE   MORE. 

We  may  now  come  back  to  Frankfort.  God  is 
faithful  to  His  promise :  "  When  the  enemy  shall 
come  in  like  a  flood,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall 
lift  up  a  standard  against  him."  Surely,  if  ever 
there  was  a  flood  of  iniquity  and  desolation,  it 
was  now  poured  out  in  fire  and  fury  upon  the 
churches.  Alcuin  and  Frankfort  were  the  stan- 
dard of  the  Lord  against  Mohammed  and  against 
Adrian,  as  well  as  against  Irene.  But  Frankfort  is 
not  immaculate.  It  admitted  into  the  Nicene  sym- 
bol those  words,  and  the  Sou, —  which,  true  as  they 
are,  are  no  part  of  the  creed.  Here  the  Easterns 
find,  justly,  a  ground  of  complaint  against  us.  At 
Nicaea,  the  fathers  would  not  tolerate  the  introduc- 
tion of  an  iota  into  their  testimony.  The  Greeks 
complain  that  we  owe  to  this  innovation  all  the 
additions  to  the  Creed  which  have  been  made 
by  the  Popes.  Here  is  our  mistake ;  "  Ephraim 
shall  yet  say,  What  have  I  any  more  to  do  with 
idols?"  till  then  "let  not  Ephraim  envy  Judah, 
nor  Judah  vex  Ephraim."  But  for  the  rest,  in  the 
spirit  of  Alcuin,  let  us  adopt  the  thrilling  words 
of  a  modern  Anglican,  worthy  to  be  named  with 
Alcuin  himself,  the  holy  Bishop  Ken.  Hear  his 
faithful  testimony  in  his  last  will  and  testament:  — 

"As  for  my  religion,  I  die  in  the  Holy  Catholic  and 
Apostolical  Faith  professed  by  the  whole  Church  before 
the  disunion  of  East  and  West ;  more  particularly  I  die  in 
the  communion  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  it  stands 
distinguished  from  all  Papal  and  Puritan  innovation,  and 
as  it  adheres  to  the  doctrine  of  the  cross." 


128       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

That  is  my  standpoint,  young  gentlemen.  It  en- 
ables you  to  comprehend  the  entire  spirit  of  these 
Lectures. 


iS.     THE   BLESSED   RESULTS. 

Note  then  as  concerning  Frankfort:  (i.)  It  is 
an  index  of  "  the  goodness  and  severity  of  God," 
in  dealing  with  a  degenerate  Christendom.  (2.)  It 
is  a  token  of  His  fidelity  in  "  reserving  to  himself" 
many  millions  of  men  who  "  had  not  bowed  the 
knee  to  Baal."  (3.)  It  shows  us  just  where  the 
churches  stood  on  the  eve  of  the  great  disruption ; 
how  terribly  the  Latin  churches  had  been  dimin- 
ished ;  how  marvellously  the  Church  of  England 
had  been  raised  to  influence,  and  was  permitted  at 
this  crisis  to  sow  the  seeds  of  her  subsequent  res- 
toration, and  to  bear  a  testimony  which  she  was 
destined  to  reclaim  as  her  heritage  forever.  (4.)  At 
the  same  time,  it  marks  a  great  epoch  in  the  eccle- 
siastical history  of  France ;  it  proves  that  as  yet 
Rome,  however  exaggerated  her  pretensions,  was 
not  the  seat  of  a  Paparchy ;  it  renews  the  spirit  of 
Irenaeus  and  Hilary ;  it  creates  what  was  after- 
wards called  Gallicanism.  (5.)  It  enables  us  to 
comprehend  the  more  modern  Councils  of  Con- 
stance and  of  Basle,  so  far  as  they  asserted  what 
was  true  to  antiquity.  (6.)  But  especially  should 
we  note  the  hand  of  God,  who  thus  closed  up  the 
period  of  CEcumenical  Councils  just  when  they 
were  no  longer  likely  to  prove  true  to  their  charter 
in  the  Scriptures ;  when  they  had  stooped  down 
from  the  Gospels  and  the  adorable  Trinity  to  fables 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      1 29 

and  to  Icons.  It  was  Divine  fidelity  to  the  promise 
that  interposed  and  saved  all  subsequent  corrup- 
tions of  truth  from  any  claim  to  catholic  con- 
sent. And  (7.)  I  cannot  but  add  that  we  see  the 
same  hand  in  giving  us  of  the  West  something  to 
confess  with  shame,  when  we  remonstrate  with  the 
Easterns.  "  Tu  qnoque  /"  they  may  reply;  "there 
is  a  beam  in  your  own  eye." 

19.    CHARLEMAGNE. 

When  Charles  Martel  struck  the  Saracens,  it 
was  God  who  stayed  the  ravages  of  the  enemy, 
and  for  a  time  said,  "  Thus  far,  but  no  further." 
How  great  he  waxed,  ruling  the  Franks  under 
nominal  kings  of  the  long-haired  race,  —  how  his 
son  Pepin  the  Short  deposed  them  and  reigned  in 
their  stead,  and  how  Charles  succeeded  as  king 
and  founded  the  Carolingian  line, —  are  not  all  these 
things  written  in  school-books?  But  look  at  him 
with  whose  name  the  epithet  "Great"  has  been 
so  incorporated  that  it  is  all  one  word.  At  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  I  have  seen  a  group  of  peasants  sing- 
ing their  German  hymns  before  daybreak,  under 
the  dome  that  once  covered  his  remains.  They 
stepped  aside,  and  I  read  upon  the  slab  which 
had  been  trodden  by  their  rough  shoes,  Carolus 
Magnus.  It  was  there  that  his  remote  successor, 
Barbarossa,  opening  the  sepulchre  three  centuries 
after  his  burial,  saw  his  gigantic  skeleton  sitting  on 
a  throne,  crowned  and  decked  in  imperial  robes, 
his  falchion  in  his  grasp,  and  the  Gospels  opened 
upon  his  knees.     They  still  show  one  of  the  bones 

9 


130       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

of  his  terrible  arm :  our  measure  called  a  foot  is 
said  to  come  from  his  giant  foot,  twelve  inches 
long.  Like  Constantine,  this  Titan  was  one  of 
those  mysterious  beings  who  perform  all  the  Lord's 
good  pleasure,  while  only  seeking  their  own.  Mar- 
vellous is  this  economizing  of  man's  free  will  by 
the  omnipotence  of  the  All-wise  and  All-good.  In 
such  characters  we  are  pretty  sure  to  find  evil  and 
good  mingled  in  vast  proportions.  This  mysterious 
creature,  who  fascinates  and  astonishes  and  over- 
awes, is  yet,  in  some  aspects,  a  ferocious  barbarian, 
a  moral  monster.1  Nevertheless,  on  the  whole,  he 
was  a  benefactor  of  the  world.  He  seemed  to  fore- 
cast the  destinies  of  Europe ;  he  tamed  barbarous 
tribes;  he  encouraged  learning;  he  shaped  the  des- 
tinies of  mankind  for  ages  after  him.  As  for  his 
religion,  like  Jehu,  he  had  a  zeal  for  God,  and  he 
"drave  furiously."  The  Church  has  felt  his  influ- 
ence, for  woe  or  weal,  ever  since  he  lived.  It  would 
be  of  no  use  to  prejudge  him ;  as  to  motives,  no 
doubt  they  were  mixed.  If  he  was  very  cruel, 
not  less  so  was  Theodosius.  Like  Cyrus,  like 
Alexander,  he  was  an  "  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliv- 
erance "  ;  he  was  the  saw  and  the  hammer  in  the 
hand  of  the  Almighty. 

20.     CHRISTMAS   DAY,  A.D.  800. 

We  have  seen  him  helping  the   saintly  Alcuin 

to  humanize  and  Christianize  the  Franks,  to  tame 

the    ambitious    Adrian,  to   rebuke   Irene   and  her 

degenerate  bishops;   and  now  we  must  follow  him 

1  See  Note  T. 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      131 

to  another  chapter  of  his  amazing  history.  We 
cross  the 'Alps;  we  watch  him  as  he  enters  Rome; 
we  seem  to  see  him  kneeling  before  the  altar,  in 
the  old  basilica  of  St.  Peter,  on  Christmas  day, 
A.  D.  800.  On  a  sudden,  what  happens?  Leo  III., 
the  patriarch,  the  pontiff,  the  nondescript  whom 
Pepin  had  made  a  temporal  satrap  by  giving  his 
predecessors  the  exarchate  of  Ravenna,  —  lo  !  he 
comes  forward  and  places  an  imperial  crown  upon 
the  head  of  the  Frank  sovereign,  and  salutes  him 
as  Emperor.  "  Long  live  the  Caesar !  "  "  Long 
live  Augustus !  "  "  Long  live  the  Emperor  of  the 
Romans !  "  Such  were  the  shouts  that  rent  the 
air;  such  was  the  stupendous  drama  of  that  event- 
ful day.  O  what  a  contrast  with  that  first  Christ- 
mas, that  brought  peace  on  earth  and  good  will 
to  men ! 

21.     WHAT   IT   MEANT. 

Well !  what  had  been  done?  "  He  had  revived 
the  Empire  of  the  West,"  is  the  common  reply. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  was  in  his  thought.  He  had 
mentally  deposed  Irene,  and  succeeded  to  her 
place,  remanding  the  woman  to  her  distaff.  He 
had  hopes  of  reversing  the  work  of  Constantine, 
and  reducing  Constantinople  down  again  to  Byzan- 
tium. It  was  no  more  to  be  "  New  Rome,"  nor 
any  kind  of  Rome;  Old  Rome  was  restored  to 
herself,  and  Charles  was  the  successor  of  all  the 
Caesars  in  their  ancient  Capitol.  Such  seems  to 
have  been  his  vast,  far-reaching,  and  almost  su- 
perhuman  thought.     It  looks  hard  to  doubt   his 


132       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

assertion  that  Leo  surprised  him.  But  all  appears 
preconcerted,  and  I  imagine  the  "  surprise  "  was  as 
to  Leo's  manner,  not  as  to  the  act.  The  shouts  of 
the  multitude,  echoing  through  the  cathedral,  were 
no  doubt  unexpected. 

22.  WIDELY  DIFFERENT  EFFECTS. 

Recall  the  fact  that  Southern  Italy  was  at  this 
time  theoretically  under  Irene,  and  Leo  III.  was 
her  subject.  It  was  the  first  instance  of  the  scep- 
tre of  the  Empire  passing  into  the  hands  of  a 
woman,  and  much  talk  there  had  been  of  her  own 
scheme  of  marrying  the  King  of  the  Franks,  so 
cementing  by  new  bonds  the  East  and  West. 
Happily,  this  did  not  take  place,  for  such  state- 
craft would  doubtless  have  defeated  its  purpose 
and  made  everything  worse.  The  coup  d'etat  by 
which  this  all-powerful  Frank  wrenched  the  West 
from  Irene  proved  a  success  then  only  in  part. 
It  failed  in  so  far  as  the  Caesars  of  the  East  were 
able  to  continue  the  Byzantine  line  for  more  than 
seven  centuries  in  New  Rome.  But  things  were 
altogether  ripe  for  a  fresh  start  in  the  West  with 
Old  Rome  for  the  capital,  and,  if  by  a  mere  fiction 
Charles  and  his  successors  considered  themselves 
Caesars  of  the  West,  he  was  in  fact  the  founder  of 
a  new  imperial  throne,  without  parallel  or  paragon. 
The  act  of  Leo  in  giving  him  his  crown,  though  it 
was  possibly  a  mere  coup  de  theatre,  of  which  he 
was  himself  the  author,  committed  the  patriarchate 
to  the  new  ojcumeue,  and  Leo  became  "  oecumenical 
bishop  "  in  a  new  sense,  because  in  this  new  em- 


THE  CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      1 33 

pire  he  was  sole  and  single.  There  was  no  other 
patriarch,  no  other  "  Apostolic  Sec,"  for  the  West- 
erns. The  Bishop  of  Rome  became  at  once  iden- 
tified with  the  new  Caesar.  Thenceforth,  the  twain 
were  one  body  and  one  spirit,  though  not  always 
of  one  mind,  but  quite  the  reverse.  The  "  Holy 
Roman  Empire,"  as  it  was  called,  by  virtue  of  this 
religious  union,  was  an  ellipse,  the  one  focus  being 
at  Rome  and  the  other  at  Aachen  or  at  Frankfort. 
Thus  the  Alps  were  a"  wall  between  rival  powers, 
each  asserting  supremacy  in  the  same  empire. 
The  inevitable  consequence  was  the  conflict  of 
the  two  sceptres,  and  the  history  of  the  Middle 
Ages  in  the  West  is  the  history  of  fierce  collisions 
between  Emperor  and  Pope;  sometimes  farcical 
poetry,  "  all  see-saw  between  this  and  that " ;  but 
generally  one  long  perpetual  tragedy,  —  a  mon- 
strous degradation  alike  of  religion  and  govern- 
ment, which  trampled  humanity  under  foot,  and 
made  Europe  to  resound  with  its  groans  and 
outcries. 

23.     THE   HOLY    ROMAN   EMPIRE. 

And  so  the  patriarchate  of  Rome  became  more 
and  more  a  worldly  power,  and  surrounded  itself 
with  a  worldly  court,  and  moved  on  to  fulfil  its 
mysterious  destiny.  The  states  of  Europe  were 
virtually  provinces  of  the  Empire,  and  made  up 
one  vast  system,  under  a  mixed  suzerainty,  Im- 
perial and  Papal,  ever  swinging  backward  or  for- 
ward between  the  two  foci.  They  maintained  a 
fruitless    struggle   for    independence    one    of    the 


134       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

other,  and  all  for  independence  of  the  twin  po- 
tentates, whose  coalition  perpetuated  their  des- 
potism. The  student  of  Dante  comprehends  what 
"  the  Empire  "  meant  in  the  Middle  Ages.  For 
just  one  thousand  years,  apart  from  England,  such 
was  Europe ;  and,  as  I  have  said,  the  Arc  dc  F Etoile 
in  Paris  stands  where  it  does,  a  monument  of  the 
recent  ignominious  fall  of  this  "  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire." Since  the  defeat  of  Austria  by  Napoleon, 
nothing  remains  of  it  save  its  elements.  The  new 
Empire  of  Germany  and  the  Kingdom  of  Italy  are 
but  expressions  of  a  new  order  of  things;  and 
though  popes  and  princes  may  still  coquet  one 
with  another  to  enslave  the  minds  and  bodies  of 
men,  the  time  is  past,  thank  God,  when  Guelphs 
and  Ghibellines  can  compose  their  strifes  with  the 
certainty  by  so  doing  of  overawing  and  beating 
down  all  antagonism.1 

24.     INSULATION   OF   ENGLAND. 

"  Except  England,"  I  said,  in  a  parenthesis,  but 
emphatically.  For  England,  blessed  with  insular- 
ity, never  permitted  herself  to  be  absorbed  into 
this  system  of  the  Empire.  France  too  asserted 
her  rightful  independence,  and  her  crown  was  al- 
ways surmounted  by  an  arch,  or  bow,  to  signify  its 
imperial  character.  But  over  and  over  again  was 
she  made  to  feel  her  serfdom  and  feudal  subjection. 
Not  so  with  the  imperial  crown  of  England ;  poor 
King  John  might  surrender  it  for  the  moment,  but 
it  was  only  to  provoke  the  revolt  of  an  indignant 
1  See  Note  U'. 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      1 35 

people  and  the  thunders  of  their  ability  to  defend 
themselves.  They  were  heard  in  Magna  Charta, 
and  in  the  noble  watchword  of  their  sons,  "  Noln- 
mus  leges  Anglic?  w/ttari." 

25.     DISTINCTIONS. 

The  court  papacy  of  Phocas  became  a  papar- 
chy;  but,  note,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  "the 
Roman  Catholic  Church."  That  is  the  product  of 
Luther's  revolution,  and  of  Loyola's  reactionary 
society,  which  avenged  itself  on  Northern  Europe 
as  Rehoboam  did  upon  the  old  men  who  advised 
reform  in  Israel,  —  turning  whips  of  thongs  into 
a  scourge  of  scorpions.  This  is  all-important 
to  be  understood :  there  never  was  a  "  Roman 
Catholic  Church  "  till  it  was  created  by  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent.  The  Papacy  and  the  Paparchy  are 
old,  but  not  the  modern  Church  so  called.  Of 
this  by  and  by.  What,  then,  was  the  condition 
of  Western  Christendom  while  this  "  Holy  Roman 
Empire  "  was  its  master  under  the  two  powers  that 
made  it?  Simply  this:  the  ancient  Latin  churches 
were  still  national  churches,  with  the  old  Nicene 
traditions  underneath  them,  smothered  but  not 
killed.  As  the  different  nations  had  their  own 
kings  and  laws,  though  the  Emperor  was  suzerain, 
so  the  Gallican  Church,  the  Spanish  Church,  the 
Church  of  the  Milanese,  and  others,  asserted  their 
old  autonomies  as  well  as  they  could,  while  they 
were  all  dominated  by  the  successful  ambition  of 
a  usurper  at  Rome.  Favoured  by  her  insularity, 
her  independence  of  the  Empire,  and  by  her  old 


136        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Cypriote  traditions,  the  Church  of  England  was 
slow  to  succumb  to  this  usurpation,  and  we  shall 
learn  hereafter  how  her  liberties  were  subverted 
gradually  and  for  a  time.  But  here  I  may  re- 
capitulate in  conclusion,  the  steps  by  which  we 
have  thus  far  seen  the  Roman  Bishop  trans- 
formed into  something  like  what  is  now  under- 
stood by  a  Pope. 

26.     FORMATION   OF   THE  PAPARCHY. 

We  have  seen  how  faithfully  the  Great  Councils 
maintained  the  doctrine  of  Christ  when  He  rebuked 
the  sin  of  his  disciples,  inquiring  "  who  should  be 
greatest."  We  have  seen,  also,  how  peevishly 
the  Bishops  of  Rome  showed  their  jealousy  of  the 
"  New  Rome,"  how  they  felt  the  indignity  of  being 
put  on  a  level  with  the  newest  of  the  great  sees, 
and  how  instinctively  they  began  to  assert  their 
apostolic  dignity,  which  so  immensely  outweighed 
all  pretensions  that  Byzantium  could  set  up  merely 
as  the  first  of  Christian  cities  and  the  capital  of  the 
regenerated  Empire.  As  generations  passed  by, 
the  symptoms  of  a  growing  insubordination  were 
increased.  From  time  to  time  some  bolder  spirit 
came  to  the  patriarchal  throne  of  Southern  Italy. 
Measures  most  daring  were  resorted  to  occasion- 
ally, and  not  a  few  inexcusable  ones,  for  which  we 
cannot  account.1  Among  such,  those  of  Leo  the 
Great  are  memorable  as  grossly  inconsistent  with 
his  otherwise  dignified  character.  The  Council  of 
Chalcedon  sufficiently  exposed  and  abased  the 
1  See  Note  V. 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      1 37 

subterfuges  and  pretensions  of  his  envoys,  and  he 
himself  succumbed ;  but  in  him  the  earliest  Pe- 
trine  hyperboles  became  audible,  and  the  spirit 
of  a  nascent  Papacy  is  discerned.  We  reach  the 
age  of  Gregory  the  Great,  however,  without  any 
practical  or  definite  enlargement  of  such  claims, 
and  providentially  we  are  enabled,  by  his  own  ear- 
nest and  reiterated  statements  of  fact  and  of  doc- 
trine, to  prove  that  he  himself  knew  nothing  of 
what  is  now  meant  by  a  "  Pope,"  even  in  the  low- 
est Gallican  ideas  of  such  a  dignitary.  For  when 
the  Bishop  of  New  Rome,  —  probably  with  no  other 
than  an  assumption  of  importance  based  on  the  ob- 
solete imperialism  of  Old-  Rome,  called  himself  the 
"  CEcumenical,"  that  is,  the  Imperial  Bishop, — we 
find  Gregory  remonstrating,  on  the  grounds  that 
such  an  assumption  violated  the  equality  of  all 
bishops,  was  a  profane  and  impious  arrogance,  and 
as  such  a  "  forerunner  of  Antichrist."  Never  does 
it  occur  to  him  to  say,  "  I  am  the  only  CEcumeni- 
cal Bishop ;  I  am,  by  divine  right,  the  superior 
of  all  bishops ;  such  a  claim  affronts  St.  Peter 
in  me,  and  the  Lord  himself,  who  established  a 
world-wide  sovereignty  in  that  apostle."  Not  a 
word  like  this,  but,  on  the  contrary,  he  rejects  the 
very  thought  as  worthy  of  Lucifer  ;  he  abjures  it 
for  himself  and  his  see.1  At  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century,  therefore,  there  was  no  Papacy ; 
nor  was  there  any  foreshadowing  of  a  papal  pre- 
dominance, unless  it  were  in  Constantinople,  in  the 
instance  which  Gregory  stigmatized.  Yet,  before 
he  had  been  two  years  in  his  grave,  Phocas,  one  of 
1  See  Note  W. 


138       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

the  most  flagitious  wretches  that  ever  reigned,  gave 
the  profane  title  to  Boniface  III.,  A.  D.  606.  It 
was  a  worldly  court  title,  as  we  have  seen,  and  the 
Church  had  no  responsibility  for  it  whatever.  Keep 
this  in  view.  It  was  a  court  distinction  merely, 
but  the  bishop  assumed  it.  So  we  must  assign  to 
Boniface  the  disgrace  of  doing  what  Gregory  had 
anathematized,  and  in  him  a  Papacy  began  to  be 
visible. 

27.     CONDITIONS   PRECEDENT. 

A  "  Papacy,"  but  not  a  Paparchy.  It  had  no 
definite  character;  it  invested  the  pretender  with 
no  real  power ;  he  was  still  obliged  to  respect  the 
councils,  and  their  canons ;  he  pretended  to  be 
their  defender  and  executive-in-chief.  Nor,  while 
the  patriarchs  of  the  East  were  watching  him  and 
forcing  him  to  obey  what  councils  had  decreed, 
could  he  magnify  himself  in  any  dangerous  degree. 
So  long  as  the  cecumene  included  the  more  cultured 
and  learned  East,  it  was  impossible  for  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  to  overshadow  the  older  patriarchates,  and 
to  make  himself  autocratic.  When  a  new  cecumene 
had  risen,  whose  master  asserted  all  that  Constan- 
tine  had  ever  claimed,  and  who  had  reversed  Con- 
stantine's  work  and  policy,  Old  Rome  became, 
for  the  first  time,  independent  of  the  East.  While 
Charlemagne  lived,  it  is  true,  he  was  his  own  pon- 
tiff in  so  large  a  degree  that  the  new  conditions  did 
not  permit  such  advantages  to  appear  in  favour 
of  the  one  "  Apostolic  See,"  which  had  now  be- 
come all-important  to  the  whole  West.     But  when 


THE   CREA  TION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      I  39 

the  founder  of  "  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  "  came 
to  his  end,  even  a  temporal  umpire  of  the  West 
was  found  only  at  Rome,  and  as  the  East  was 
very  soon  forgotten,  all  the  spiritual  power  of  its 
great  patriarchs  was  absorbed  by  him.  It  wanted 
only  some  man  of  genius,  alike  ambitious  and  un- 
scrupulous, pushing  his  way  to  the  throne  of  Leo 
and  Gregory,  to  find  all  things  prepared  for  an  en- 
tire revolution  in  Western  Christendom.  He  had 
but  to  put  his  foot  on  the  canons,  to  ignore  the 
East,  and  to  assert  himself  the  Bishop  of  Bishops, 
to  find  support  in  the  necessities  of  the  new  Em- 
pire, in  those  of  subordinate  kings,  and  in  those  of 
the  churches  now  cut  off  in  all  practical  affairs 
from  their  Eastern  brethren.  Such  a  man  was 
Nicholas  (a.  D.  858),  and  he  made  himself  the  first 
practical  Pope. 

28.     MY   POSITION. 

The  facts  I  maintain  as  to  the  formation  of  the 
Papacy  are  conceded  by  recent  and  by  older  his- 
torians of  repute.  But  they  fail  to  state  the  irre- 
sistible conclusion :  there  was  no  "  pope,"  strictly 
speaking,  before  Nicholas.  (1.)  Leo  the  Great 
was  not  a  pope  when  he  was  rebuked  and  over- 
ruled at  Chalcedon.  (2.)  Agatho  was  not  a  pope 
when  the  last  CEcumenical  Council  anathematized 
Honorius ;  when  he,  like  his  successors,  accepted  it. 
(3.)  Gregory  was  not  a  pope  when  he  called  the 
asserter  of  an  oecumenical  bishopric  a  robber  of 
the  rights  of  all  bishops,  and  a  forerunner  of  Anti- 
christ.    (4.)  Adrian  was  not  a  pope  when  Charle- 


140       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

magne  called  the  Council  of  Frankfort,  overruled 
his  decisions,  and,  sustained  by  the  entire  West, 
convicted  him  of  heresy  in  accepting  a  false  dogma 
from  a  woman  and  her  pseudo  council.  (5.)  Nor, 
to  come  to  the  times  of  him  who  crowned  Charle- 
magne, and  made  a  new  era  for  East  and  West 
on  that  memorable  Christmas  day,  —  nor  was 
Leo  III.  a  pope  when  he  pleaded  before  Charles 
as  his  subject  and  his  judge ;  when  he  offered  him 
personal  "  adoration " ;  when  he  lived  and  died 
his  subject,  and  saw  him,  without  remonstrance, 
exercising  pontifical  powers,  compared  with  which 
the  Regale,  as  afterwards  understood  by  Henry 
VIII.  or  Louis  XIV.,  shrinks  to  insignificance.1 
(6.)  Finally,  there  could  be  no  pope  while  this 
mighty  patriarchate  was  still  nominally  subject  to 
the  canons,  and  in  full  communion  with  the  East, 
which  knew  him  only  as  an  equal. 

29.     NICHOLAS   AND   THE   DECRETALS. 

"  Since  the  days  of  Gregory  I.  to  our  time,"  says 
one  of  his  contemporaries,  smitten  with  admiration 
for  the  truly  imperial  genius  of  Nicholas,  "  sat  no 
high-priest  on  the  throne  of  St.  Peter  to  be  com- 
pared to  him.  He  tamed  kings  and  tyrants,  and 
ruled  the  world  like  a  sovereign."  We  have  seen 
that  Gregory,  noble  and  pre-eminent  as  he  was, 
was  not  a  "  pope  " ;  and  here  we  have  the  fact, 
dropping  from  the  pen  of  one  who  knew  all  about 
intermediate  Bishops  of  Rome,  including  Hadrian 
and  Leo,  that  Nicholas  was  something  which  they 

1  See  Note  X'. 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.       I41 

were  not.  All  writers  allow  that  he  left  the  Roman 
see  something  essentially  different  from  what  he 
found  it.  All  acknowledge  that  he  effected  a  revo- 
lution in  the  churches  of  the  West,  and  carried 
his  conduct  to  such  a  pitch  towards  the  East  that 
they  cried  out  against  him  for  arrogating  to  him- 
self and  his  see  what  was  never  heard  of  before. 
For  the  first  time  the  Roman  Bishop  made  him- 
self the  sine  qua  non  of  all  thought  and  action  in 
Christendom  ;  the  centre  and  criterion  not  only 
of  unity,  but  of  communion  with  Christ  himself. 
As  such  he  excommunicated  the  Easterns;  they 
returned  the  compliment,  and  excommunicated 
him.  These  relations  were  not  absolutely  final, 
but  they  were  never  repaired  by  any  permanent 
restorations.  There  was  now  a  new  power  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  The  Easterns  never  accepted 
it  for  an  hour.  But  it  was  fastened  on  West- 
ern Christendom,  not  as  a  theory,  but  as  a  fact. 
It  was  no  more  a  dignity,  but  a  despotism;  not 
a  titular  papacy,  but  the  Paparchy.  There  was 
a  Pope  in  the  West,  and  his  power  was  thence- 
forth a  reality,  developing  into  a  supremacy  like 
God's. 

The  "  Pope "  now  existed  in  one  who  swept 
away  antiquity,  and  all  councils  and  canons  which 
he  did  not  fancy.  The  instrument  by  which 
this  prodigious  revolution  was  effected  was  "the 
forged  Decretals."  All  men  now  acknowledge 
that  they  are  forgeries,  but,  by  whomsoever  made, 
Nicholas  brought  them  forth,  appealed  to  them 
as  authentic,  and  proved  by  them  that  all  the 
Bishops  of  Rome,  from  St.   Peter  down  to   him, 


142       INSTITUTES   OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

had  ruled  the  Church  absolutely  by  their  decrees. 
The  age  was  unlearned :  the  Decretals  were  not 
subjected  to  the  tests  by  which  learning  even  in 
its  elements  might  have  refuted  them.  They  van- 
ished like  smoke  when  the  art  of  printing  showed 
what  they  really  were. 

But  all  through  the  Middle  Ages  they  over- 
awed the  West,  kings,  bishops,  monks,  saints  and 
sinners  alike,  and  this  fact  is  the  apology  for  St. 
Bernard  and  others,  who  at  heart  were  reformers, 
but  could  not  refute  such  testimony.  For  they 
passed  into  history  as  genuine ;  they  became  parts 
of  the  canon  law;  they  practically  abrogated 
all  the  oecumenical  canons,  they  created  the  pseudo 
oecumenical  canons  and  the  pseudo  councils  that 
enacted  them ;  they  enabled  successive  pontiffs 
to  raise  their  pretensions  higher  and  higher,  "  de- 
ceivers "  no  doubt,  but  yet  "being  deceived"; 
they  made  an  honest  fanatic  of  Hildebrand,  who 
never  doubted  his  right  to  speak  for  God  and 
as  God,  and  who  in  the  eleventh  century  made 
the  name  of  "  Pope "  peculiar  to  himself,  for- 
bidding its  application  to  the  patriarchs  of  the 
East;  and  after  him  they  made  Innocent  III., 
who  turned  the  fanaticism  of  the  Crusades  against 
Christian  men.  In  a  word,  they  are  responsible 
for  all  that  has  made  havoc  of  the  churches,  East 
and  West,  and  that  perpetuates  their  schisms  at 
this  hour.  Every  one  of  these  positions  rests  on 
irrefragable  evidence;  on  facts  not  denied,  but, 
alas  !  not  kept  before  men's  minds.1 
1  See  Note  Y'. 


THE   CREATION  OF  A    WESTERN  EMPIRE.      1 43 

30.     AN   ILLUSTRATION. 

And  if  you  ask  how  it  comes  that,  after  such 
frauds  are  once  exposed  to  the  scorn  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  Papacy  still  survives  and  even  enlarges 
its  pretensions   in   our  own    enlightened    day,  the 
answer    is    sufficiently    plain.     Did    you   ever  see 
stone-masons  turn  an  arch?     They  make  a  frame- 
work out  of  refuse  wood,  of  laths  and  scantlings, 
anything  that  comes  to  hand ;   a  few  nails  suffice 
to   hold   them  together;    they  set   it   in   place  on 
abutments  well  prepared,  and  then  they  begin  to 
work  in  stone.     They  soon  erect  the  arch  and  set 
the  key-stone  and  build  upon  it,  —  a  bridge,  or  a 
castle,  or  a  tower  that  reaches  to  heaven.     Then 
no  longer  any  need  of  the   framework;   a  beggar 
may  kick  it  out  and  turn  it  into  fuel  to  boil  his 
soup;    but  —  the  arch  remains  for  ages.     So  the 
Decretals  have  disappeared,  but  that  arch  of  pride, 
the  Papacy,  stands  the  firmer  because  of  all  that 
has  been  built  upon  it.     The  laws  and  usages  of 
Europe,  the  manners  of  nations,  the  superstitions 
of  the    ignorant,    the    piety    of    the    devout,    the 
diplomacy  of  monarchs,  the  thrones  of  empires, 
and  empire  itself,  all  must  fall  together,  if  the  arch 
be  suddenly  destroyed.     And  then  the  arch  itself 
is  old   and  interesting;   it  is   ivy-clad  and  green, 
with  associations  of  poesy  and  romance.     A  thou- 
sand motives  conspire  to  make  men  sustain  it;   and 
stand   it  will  and  must,  till  nations  discover  that 
truth    and    right   are  the  only  supports  for   what 
humanity  requires,  — for  what  law  and  equity  and 
order  must  find  indispensable.     So  long  as  those 


144       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

old  abutments  of  imperial  despotism  and  popular 
ignorance  remain,  the  old  arch  will  hold.  But 
thank  God,  His  Providence  is  contriving  reforms, 
and  providing  resources,  against  changes  that  must 
come.  They  are  working  gradually,  but  surely,  to 
their  glorious  result;  let  us  be  faithful  to  duty  and 
love  truth  in  our  generation,  and  leave  the  rest  to 
Him  who  has  promised,  and  who  is  Faithful  and 
True.1 

1  Rev.  xix.  ir. 


LECTURE   V. 

THE   MIDDLE  AGES. 

i.     DARK  AGES. 

'THHE  Middle  Ages,  as  I  reminded  you,  extend 
-*-  from  that  memorable  Christmas,  A.  D.  800, 
to  the  year  1500,  when  Charles-Quint  was  born. 
This  period  was  not  all  dark,  by  any  means ;  but 
what  we  may  fairly  call  the  Dark  Ages  are  here  in- 
cluded, and  may  justly  be  considered  as  extending 
from  A.  D.  900  to  A.  D.  1400;  from  the  pontificate 
of  Benedict  IV.  to  that  of  Benedict  XIII.,  Anti- 
pope  at  Avignon.  You  observe  these  convenient 
"  dates  of  anchorage,"  and  the  economy  of  using 
the  names  of  two  Benedicts  as  terminal  figures. 
And  these  names  stand  for  facts  that  may  well 
stigmatize  the  included  period  as  dark.  For  the 
first  Benedict  marks  an  epoch  when  the  crime  of 
Nicholas,  with  his  decretals,  was  bearing  its  natural 
fruit,  and  the  see  of  Rome  was  given  over  to  the 
sway  of  impiety  the  most  frightful,  while  the  other 
Benedict  denotes  the  schism  consequent  upon  the 
removal  of  the  Popes  to  Avignon,  and  all  the  scan- 
dals involved  in  one  series  of  popes  at  Rome  and 
another  in  France,  mutually  excommunicating  and 
anathematizing  one  another,  and,  what  is  worse, 
damning   the    unhappy  people    who    respectively 


146       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

adhered  to  this  pope  or  that,  because  in  their  utter 
bewilderment  and  consternation  they  were  unable 
to  know  which  of  the  two  rivals  was  God's  vice- 
gerent, without  communion  with  whom  no  flesh 
could  be  saved.  During  this  period,  remember,  a 
large  portion  of  Spain  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
Arabs,  and  science  fled  to  their  Universities  for  a 
season.  If  these  ages  are  not  justly  denominated 
the  "  Dark  Ages,"  I  know  not  what  to  call  them. 

2.     MAITLAND'S   ELUCIDATION. 

We  owe  to  the  learned  Dr.  Maitland  a  very  dis- 
criminating work  on  these  ages,  which  he  would 
confine  to  the  period  between  A.  D.  800  and  A.  D. 
1200,  and  which,  he  shows,  were  not  altogether  so 
dark  as  some  have  allowed  themselves  to  assert.1 
Hence  a  reaction.  Many,  disgusted  with  Robert- 
son and  Mosheim,  rush  to  the  other  extreme,  and 
pronounce  those  very  ages  the  most  commendable 
in  history.  Let  us  accept  Dr.  Maitland's  just  and 
discriminating  view,  and  with  gratitude  to  God  con- 
fess that  He  has  shown  His  mercy  and  multiplied 
His  saints  in  the  darkest  periods  of  human  history. 
But  this  fact  would  not  be  worth  stating  unless  such 
periods  have  been.  A  rapid  glance  at  the  ages  I 
have  noted  may  enable  you  to  judge  for  yourselves 
whether  or  not  they  were  ages  of  illumination. 

3.     A   GLANCE   AT   THE   EAST. 

The  predominance  of  the  Institutions  of  Charle- 
magne is  the  characteristic  of  the  Middle  Ages: 
1  See  Note  Z'. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  1 47 

the  Dark  Ages  are  those  in  which  the  Institutions 
of  Nicholas  grew  and  overgrew  the  whole  state  of 
society  in  Western  Europe,  culminating  in  evils 
intolerable  to  the  Paparchy  itself.  But,  as  we 
must  now  pursue  our  inquiries  in  the  outline  of 
Western  history  chiefly,  it  may  be  well  to  glance 
for  a  moment  at  the  corresponding  history  of  the 
East. 

My  plan  does  not  permit  me  to  pursue  this  al- 
most unexplored  field,  commonly  called  Byzan- 
tine History.  It  may  be  dated  from  A.  D.  800, 
when  the  Eastern  Caesars  lost  their  hold  on  the 
West,  to  A.  D.  1453,  when  Constantinople  was  ex- 
tinguished as  a  Christian  capital.  "  From  the 
foundation  of  the  New  Rome,"  says  a  recent 
writer,1  "  down  to  A.  D.  1057,  the  machine  of  gov- 
ernment had  worked  steadily,  with  few  violent 
changes.  There  had  been  a  general  accumulation 
of  wealth,  with  security  for  life  and  property,  un- 
der a  system  of  jurisprudence  the  most  complete 
ever  formulated ;  a  system  copied  by  the  whole  of 
modern  Europe,  and  indeed  by  the  civilized  world. 
The  same  city  had  developed  and  formulated  the  re- 
ligion of  Christendom.  .  .  .  Under  the  influence  of 
Orthodox  Christianity,  Roman  law,  and  the  Greek 
spirit  of  individualism,  a  steady  progress  had  been 
made.  No  other  government  has  ever  existed  in 
Europe  which  has  secured  for  so  long  a  period  the 
like  advantages  to  its  people."  This  is  historic 
truth.  Writers  who  delight  to  chronicle  only  the 
crimes  and  disgraces  of  a  period  have  dwelt  so 
exclusively  on  their  favourite  themes  as  to  leave  a 
1  See  Note  A". 


148        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

widely  different  impression  upon  many  intelligent 
minds. 

This  period  must  be  divided  as  follows :  — 
1.  From  Irene  to  the  end  of  the  Basilian  dynasty, 
A.  D.  1057.  2.  Then  a  period  of  gradual  decline,  till 
Constantinople  was  taken  by  the  Latins,  in  A.  D. 
1203.  3.  Then  the  melancholy  period  of  Turk- 
ish advance  upon  the  Eastern  Empire,  until  the 
West  abandoned  it  to  its  fate,  in  1453.  To  this 
epoch  we  shall  have  occasion  to  return. 

4.     THE   DECRETALS   IN   OPERATION. 

Just  when  the  Basilian  dynasty  established  itself 
in  the  East,  the  erection  of  the  Paparchy  threw  the 
Eastern  churches  out  of  open  communion  with 
the  patriarchate  of  Rome.  In  the  Orient  no  harm 
followed.  The  Basilian  era  was  prosperous  in  pro- 
portion as  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Popes. 

But,  to  confine  ourselves  now  to  the  Latins,  we 
must  note  the  significant  fact  that  the  triumph  of 
the  Decretals  over  the  ancient  Catholic  Constitu- 
tions was  followed  by  a  period  of  unparalleled  in- 
famy in  the  Roman  patriarchate  and  of  consequent 
corruption  wherever  its  influence  was  felt.  Here 
then  is  a  dilemma :  either  the  work  of  Nicholas  was 
a  genuine  and  just  advance  of  the  see  of  Rome  to 
the  position  which  God  designed  for  the  develop- 
ment of  His  Church,  or  it  was  a  wicked  apostasy 
from  apostolic  order  and  organization.  If  it  was 
the  former,  —  if  Nicholas  had  placed  himself  and  his 
successors  where  Christ  meant  that  they  should 
stand,  —  the  most  blessed   results   should   follow. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  1 49 

But  precisely  the  reverse  is  the  case.  The  evils  that 
were  immediately  bred  of  the  new  order  of  things, 
—  of  the  system,  that  is,  which  was  based  on  the 
forged  decretals,  —  these  evils  were  so  enormous 
and  so  lasting,  that  even  the  most  besotted  defend- 
ers of  Ultramontane  Romanism  give  up  all  apolo- 
gies.1 

Take  the  epoch  of  the  Dark  Ages  which  I  have 
denoted.  Says  an  eminent  Italian  chronicler, 
"  The  throne  of  humility  and  chastity  (i.  e.  the 
throne  of  St.  Peter)  became  the  object  of  all  ambi- 
tion, the  recompense  of  all  crimes,  the  refuge  of 
all  abominations."  Even  Cardinal  Baronius  (a.  D. 
1588)  is  forced  to  speak  of  the  tenth  century  in 
such  words  as  these :  "  The  Holy  Roman  Church 
was  as  foul  as  could  be.  Harlots,  superlative  alike 
in  profligacy  and  in  power,  governed  at  Rome,  ap- 
pointed bishops,  and  intruded  their  paramours  into 
the  see  of  St.  Peter."  To  escape  the  awful  conclu- 
sions he  can  only  invent  a  theory,  in  which  De 
Maistre  has  followed  him,  that  the  Popes  made  by 
Theodora  and  Marozia  must  be  discarded  from  the 
catalogue.  If  so,  by  parity  of  argument,  thirteen 
Popes  are  to  be  stricken  out  of  the  succession,  and 
so  for  sixty  years  there  must  have  been  no  one 
legitimately  in  St.  Peter's  chair  —  so  called.  The 
period  of  these  two  generations  Baronius  thus 
characterizes:  "Who  can  venture  to  affirm  that 
persons  thus  basely  intruded  by  prostitutes  were 
lawful  Roman  pontiffs?  "  He  says:  "The  canons 
were  buried  in  oblivion ;  .  .  .  the  ancient  tradi- 
tions under  the  ban ;  old  customs,  sacred  rites, 
1  See  Note  B". 


150       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

and  usages  of  election,  quite  abolished.  Mad 
lust,  relying  on  worldly  power,  and  incited  by  the 
spur  of  ambition,  claimed  everything  for  its  own. 
Christ  was  then  in  a  deep  sleep  in  the  ship ;  .  .  . 
and  what  seemed  worse,  there  were  no  disciples  to 
wake  him,  .  .  .  for  all  were  snoring.  You  may 
imagine  what  sort  of  presbyters  and  deacons  were 
chosen  as  cardinals  by  these  monsters."  Let  me 
mention  here,  that  Roman  cardinals  were  the  pro- 
duct of  this  same  period  when  "  the  ancient  tradi- 
tions were  under  the  ban,"  and  when  "the  canons 
were  buried  in  oblivion."  They  are  the  creatures 
of  a  worldly  court,  and  often  are  not  even  nomi- 
nally in  Holy  Orders;  yet  they  pose  as  "  princes," 
and  presume  to  direct  the  conduct  of  the  most 
venerable  bishops. 

A  recent  writer,  Dr.  Littledale,  has  quoted 
Genebrard,  Bishop  of  Aix  (A.  D.  1597),  as  most 
justly  extending  this  era  of  infamy  much  fur- 
ther than  Baronius  does.  According  to  him,  it 
reached  over  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  during 
which,  he  says,  "  about  fifty  Popes  .  .  .  have  been 
apostatical  rather  than  apostolical."  If  we  reckon 
one  hundred  and  sixty  Popes  after  Nicholas,  then 
nearly  one  third  of  the  whole  succession  have  been 
such  apostates.  By  their  own  reckoning  from  St. 
Peter,  nearly  one  fifth  of  those  who  have  been  the 
infallible  oracles  of  the  Most  High,  and  communion 
with  whom  is  requisite  to  salvation,  are  thus  painted 
and  described  by  writers  of  the  Papal  communion. 
No  one  can  wonder  that  the  effigy  of  Pope  Joan 
sits  portress  at  the  gate  of  this  Nicolaitan  period.1 
1  See  Note  C". 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  I  5  I 

Account  for  the  strange  history  as  you  will,  it  be- 
tokens the  abominations  of  the  period  of  which 
she  is  a  landmark:  it  coincides  with  the  apocalyp- 
tic prophecy,  "  I  saw  a  woman  sit  upon  a  scarlet- 
coloured  beast." 

5.     HOW   IT    LOOKED   IN   ENGLISH   EYES. 

All  this  was  imported  into  England,  where  Dun- 
stan,  alas  !  was  introducing  many  things  unknown 
to  Bede  and  Alcuin.  Even  King  Edgar,  who, 
though  not  a  severe  moralist,  was  a  saint  if  com- 
pared with  the  pontiffs  of  his  time,  has  recorded 
his  testimony  against  them.1  "  We  see  in  Rome," 
he  says,  "  only  debauchery,  licentiousness,  and 
drunkenness;  the  houses  of  priests  are  the  shame- 
ful abodes  of  harlots,  and  of  worse  than  these.  In 
the  dwelling  of  the  Pope,  they  gamble  by  day  and 
by  night.  Instead  of  fastings  and  prayers,  they 
give  place  to  bacchanalian  songs,  lascivious  dances, 
and  the  debauchery  of  Messalina."  God  knows  how 
I  hate  even  to  name  these  things  afresh ;  but  when, 
in  our  own  times,  a  pontiff  has  decreed,  and  made 
it  dogma,  that  Popes  like  these  were  all  infallible 
in  setting  forth  the  oracles  of  Divine  truth,  I  ask, 
with  sorrow  of  heart,  "  Is  there  not  a  cause?" 

6.     THE  LATIN  CHURCHES. 

But  amid  all  these  horrors,  the  Latin  churches, 
in  spite   of  the  despotism   that  dominated  them, 
were  yet,  as  such,  a  portion  of  the  one  Holy  Cath- 
olic Church,  and  God's  Spirit  lived  in  thousands  of 
1  See  Note  D". 


152       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

saints,  who,  as  best  they  could,  still  walked  with 
God  and  kept  His  way.  Remember,  there  was  no 
"  Roman  Catholic  Church  "  at  this  period,  substi- 
tuting itself  for  the  Church  of  the  Creed  and  of 
the  old  Councils.  Hence,  these  Latin  churches 
were  Catholic  churches,  and  the  Paparchy  includ- 
ing "  the  Court  of  Rome,"  a  mere  worldly  machine, 
was  an  artificial  system,  superimposed  by  the  De- 
cretals, defiling  them  as  by  a  leprosy,  but  not  de- 
stroying organic  life,  nor  yet  healthful  functions  of 
grace,  which  were  fruitful  of  good  works.  Let  me^ 
for  a  moment  illustrate  this  by  a  reference  to 
"  Gallicanism." 


7.    GALLICANISM. 

As  I  have  hinted,  the  spirit  of  Irenaeus  ruled  at 
Frankfort,  and  manifested  itself  as  the  spirit  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  in  Alcuin.  The  Decretal  system 
was  introduced  too  soon  afterwards,  not  to  awaken 
the  strong  impression  that  it  must  be  spurious. 
Clearly,  Frankfort  would  have  been  impossible  had 
Charlemagne  known  such  a  code,  or  had  Adrian, 
who  only  ventured  to  hint  at  its  existence,  presumed 
to  maintain  it.  To  the  honour  of  Hincmar,  Arch- 
bishop of  Rheims,1  he  resisted  Nicholas  and  his 
Decretals  as  soon  as  they  were  imposed  upon  the 
bishops  of  Gaul.  His  conduct  and  protestations 
perpetuated  the  influence  of  Frankfort,  and  created 
the  "  Gallicanism  "  which  has  preserved  the  sem- 
blance of  nationality  to  the  Church  of  France 
down  to  our  own  times.  Under  Louis  IX.  (St. 
1  See  Note  E". 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  153 

Louis)  its  essence  became  formulated  and  known 
as  the  "Pragmatic  Sanction"  of  A.  D.  1268.  By 
this  instrument,  St.  Louis  asserted  (1)  his  own 
position  as  (Eveque  au  dehors}  the  temporal  head 
of  the  Gallican  Church  ;  (2)  defended  the  rights 
of  the  metropolitans  and  other  bishops;  (3)  se- 
cured the  national  Church  against  many  pretended 
powers  and  privileges  of  the  Popes ;  (4)  re-vindi- 
cated the  canon  law  and  ancient  usages  as  to  elec- 
tions to  bishoprics  and  the  like;  (5)  reserved  the 
imperial  rights  of  his  crown ;  and  (6)  forbade  the 
papal  emissaries  to  tax  the  Gallican  Church  with- 
out its  own  consent  or  the  royal  permission.  Such 
was  elemental  "  Gallicanism,"  which,  in  bolder 
forms,  was  not  less  the  spirit  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  under  the  Decretalist  usurpation.  Ultra- 
montane writers  recognize  the  Church  of  England 
as  only  acting  logically  under  Elizabeth,  while  the 
French  Church  shrank  back  from  the  inexorable 
conclusions.1  So  late  as  1688  the  Gallicans  en- 
deavoured to  save  themselves  from  the  inconsist- 
encies in  which  they  had  become  entangled  by 
submitting  to  absorption  in  "  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,"  created  at  the  Council  of  Trent  on  pur- 
pose to  supersede  national  churches.  Poor  Bos- 
suet  !  terribly  did  he  feel  his  chains,  when  he 
struggled  to  save  what  he  could  of  "  Gallican 
liberties."  Feeble,  but  most  significant  and  in- 
structive to  us,  was  his  exclamation,  "  Let  us  pre- 
serve the  massive  maxims  of  our  forefathers,  —  the 
precious  words  of  St.  Louis,  —  which  the  Galli- 
can Church  has  derived  from  the  traditions  of 
1  See  Note  F". 


154       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

the  Church  Universal."  Poor  Bossuet,  indeed ! 
He  felt  the  grip  of  pontifical  imposture  when  he 
thus  pleaded  for  limitations:  "The  ocean  itself 
has  bounds  to  its  plenitude ;  let  it  overpass  them, 
it  becomes  a  deluge  which  would  make  havoc  of 
the  universe."  Again  I  sigh,  Poor  Bossuet !  In 
vain,  having  let  Trent  in,  does  he  try  to  keep  this 
deluge  out.  What  would  he  have  said  had  he 
lived,  like  Dupanloup,  to  see  Pius  IX.  call  him- 
self "  infallible,"  and  spurn  the  venerable  bishops 
of  France  from  the  foot  of  his  throne  in  a  nominal 
council  which  reduced  them  all  to  "  sacristans."  x 

8.     ST.  BERNARD. 

Marking  the  futile  heroism  of  Hincmar,  let  us 
come  now  to  the  age  of  St.  Bernard.  It  was  the 
period  of  the  Crusades,  and  he,  alas !  was  carried 
away  by  them.  His  agency  in  stimulating  the 
second  Crusade  is  a  blot  on  his  memory.  He 
could  not  be  wiser  than  his  times ;  he  lived  (a.  d. 
1090-1153)  at  a  period  when  the  system  of  the 
Decretals  had  culminated  under  Gregory  VII. 
(Hildebrand),  but  while  as  yet  it  had  not  exhib- 
ited all  the  fury  and  flame  of  its  arrogance  under 
Innocent  III.2  Just  at  the  epoch  of  the  first  Chris- 
tian chiliad,  when  the  impression  prevailed  that 
Christ  was  about  to  make  his  second  advent,  and 
bring  the  crimes  of  popes  and  princes  to  an  end, 
stands  the  noble  figure  of  Gerbert,  who  strove  to 
reform,  and  so  strengthened,  the  Papacy.  The 
name  he  assumed,  as  Sylvester  II.,  goes  back  to 
1  See  Note  G".  2  A.  D.  119S-1216. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  155 

the  Nicene  epoch,  and  indicates  his  desire  to  re- 
store the  piety  of  the  first  Bishop  of  Rome,  who 
bore  it.  Remember,  that  with  all  the  Latins  down 
to  the  epoch  of  Trent  we  Anglicans  are  in  full 
communion;  and  just  so  far  as  theirs  was  the 
spirit  of  Vincent,  they  were  witnesses  with  us 
against  the  iniquity  of  the  Paparchy.  Even  St. 
Bernard  was,  in  spirit,  one  of  us  ;  he  was  a  re- 
former, so  far  as  he  knew  how  to  be.  It  was  not  his 
fault  that  he  imagined  the  decretals  to  be  genuine 
monuments  of  the  primitive  ages.  If  the  Pope 
favoured  a  crusade,  he  inferred  "God  wills  it." 
Yet,  like  Hincmar,  he  did  his  best  to  resist  the 
evils  that  were  bred  of  Decretalism.  He  loved 
Eugenius  III.  as  his  pupil,  yet  he  remonstrates 
with  him  like  a  prophet,  and  denounces  the  profli- 
gacy of  his  court.  "  Who  will  give  me,  before  I 
die,"  he  exclaims,  "  to  see  the  Church  as  it  was  in 
the  ancient  days."  l  He  was  nurtured  in  the  extrav- 
agant Mariolatry  of  his  age,  but  he  shrank  from 
any  increase  of  it.  In  his  terrible  assault  upon 
innovators  who  had  just  begun  to  talk  about  "  the 
immaculate  conception "  of  St.  Mary,  he  shows 
where  he  must  have  stood  in  a  more  enlightened 
day.2  He  denounces  the  nascent  fable  as  an  idea 
"  of  which  the  Church's  rite  knows  nothing,  which 
right  reason  sustains  not,  which  primitive  tradition 
does  not  favour."  He  calls  it  "  a  novelty  rashly 
admitted  against  the  religious  use  of  the  Church; 
born  of  levity,  the  sister  of  superstition,  the  mother 
of  temerity,  ...  the  invention  of  a  few  inexperi- 
enced simpletons."  After  nearly  eight  hundred 
1  See  Note  W.  2  See  Note  I". 


156       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

years,  we  have  seen  a  Roman  pontiff  making  this 
fable  into  a  dogma,  and  its  acceptance  a  condition 
of  eternal  salvation. 


9.     THE   PATRISTIC   PERIOD. 

But  now  a  most  important  point,  of  which  St. 
Bernard  is  the  index.  He  is  known  to  Latin  theo- 
logians as  the  "  last  of  the  Fathers."  He  deserves 
this  name,  not  because  a  doctor  of  the  twelfth  age 
can  possibly  be  reckoned  a  "  Father,"  but  because 
he  closes  the  long  line  of  Western  worthies  who 
maintained  the  patristic  principle  theoretically,  and, 
as  far  as  their  times  would  permit,  practically  also. 
I  should  note  Alcuin  as  the  last  of  the  Fathers, 
for  that  would  be  a  parallel  to  the  Greek  idea: 
they  make  Alcuin's  contemporary,  John  Damas- 
cene, the  last.  Anselm  is  rather  a  forerunner  of 
the  Schoolmen.  St.  Bernard  was  the  last  of  those 
Latin  theologians  who  professed  to  be  guided  by 
"  the  Scriptures  and  ancient  authors," — by  the  rule 
of  Vincent,  in  short.  "What  I  have  received  from 
the  Church,  that  in  all  confidence  I  hold,  and  that 
I  teach ;  what  is  otherwise,  I  confess,  I  am  very 
scrupulous  about  admitting."  He  puts  his  finger 
on  the  very  essence  of  the  new  theology,  of  which 
Abelard  was  forerunner,  when  in  memorable  words 
he  accuses  him  of  doing  in  the  domain  of  Holy 
Scripture  what  men  had  been  taught  by  dialectics: 
thus  becoming  a  "  censor  of  the  faith,  not  a  disciple, 
—  an  emendator,  not  an  imitator."  We  reach  the 
epoch  when,  by  the  introduction  of  syllogistic  ma- 
nipulations, truths  professed  in  the  Creeds  because 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  I  57 

contained  in  Holy  Scripture  were  made  the  base  of 
indefinite  exaggerations.  The  Fathers  were  hos- 
tile to  codes  of  belief;  the  Nicene  creed  bears  wit- 
ness to  their  tender  regard  for  what  is  written, 
while  framing  liturgic  formulas  in  childlike  re- 
sponse to  apostles  and  evangelists.  Beyond  these 
simple  formulas  they  would  not  presume :  they  felt 
afraid  of  applying  logic  to  mysterious  realities,  and 
venturing  into  conclusions  which  subjected  the 
mysteries  of  God  to  the  infirmities  of  human  rea- 
son not  only,  but  of  human  speech  as  well.  Hence 
the  Council  of  Constantinople  forbade  the  framing 
of  any  new  creed,  or  the  dictation  of  any  other  to 
converts  from  heresy  or  schism.  What  Bernard 
foresaw  was  a  disposition  to  break  through  all 
this.1 

10.    THE   SCHOLASTICS. 

Not  content  with  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints,"  men  were  about  to  erect  upon  it  a 
fabric  of  trestle-work,  employing  Aristotle's  syllo- 
gisms to  build  their  tower  of  Babel  and  scale  the 
heavens.  Expounders  of  Scripture  and  stewards 
of  the  grand  deposit  of  truth  were  no  longer  to  be 
accounted  theologians.  The  new  plan  was  this : 
Human  wit  must  exert  itself  to  find  a  major  and  a 
minor  premise  in  admitted  truths.  Draw  the  con- 
clusion, and  discover  a  novel  truth.  Try  it  again, 
and  you  find  another  novelty.  Make  premises  of 
these,  and  draw  a  new  inference.  You  have  pro- 
gressive theology,  and  the  process  can  be  ex- 
tended ad  infinitum.  Such  is  Scholasticism. 
1  See  Note  J". 


158        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Peter  Lombard  was  Bernard's  protegt,  but  he 
seems  to  have  been  fascinated  by  Abelard,  whose 
pupil  he  had  been.  The  genius  of  Augustine 
had  pointed  in  this  direction,  and  Anselm  had 
followed  his  indications.  Abelard  himself  was 
only  sparingly  acquainted  with  Aristotle,  whose 
works  were  imperfectly  known  in  Europe  till  the 
Saracens,  who  had  obtained  them  from  the  Nesto- 
rians,  handed  them  back  to  the  Latins,  many  of 
them  in  very  bad  retranslations.  Lombard  became 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  is  known  as  the  "  Mas- 
ter of  the  Sentences."  The  "  Schoolmen  "  prop- 
erly so  called  became  commentators  upon  these 
Sentences,  and,  by  logical  methods,  enlarged  their 
import  and  their  domain.  In  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  became  the 
great  Scholastic,  but  before  the  end  of  that  age 
Duns  Scotus,  the  "  Subtle  Doctor,"  had  founded  an 
antagonist  system ;  and  now  these  rival  authorities 
divided  the  schools  between  them.  The  intermi- 
nable disputes  of  the  Thomists  and  Scotists,  Nomi- 
nalists and  Realists,  became  embittered  beyond  all 
conception,  owing  largely  to  the  partisan  feelings 
of  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  these  rival 
orders  each  following  its  own  doctor,  perhaps  very 
naturally. 

11.     RELATIONS    WITH   MODERN   THOUGHT. 

You  will  not  ask  me  to  go  into  an  elucidation  of 
these  disputes ;  and  I  am  very  glad  of  it,  because 
I  confess  my  inability  to  appreciate  refinements 
and  distinctions  — 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  159 

"which  divide 
A  hair  'tvvixt  south  and  southwest  side," 

and  the  more  I  have  looked  into  them  the  less  I  feel 
that  I  know  about  them.  Pius  IX.  has  forbidden 
men  to  look  into  modern  discoveries.  Men  may 
think,  but  not  for  themselves.  Leo  XIII.,  with 
solemn  irony,  professing  himself  a  friend  of  scien- 
tific thought,  commends  the  study  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas  to  inquiring  minds  of  the  Roman  Obe- 
dience. He  thus  accomplishes  two  important  ob- 
jects:  (1)  he  shows  just  where  Science  ought  to 
stop,  in  his  judgment;  and  (2)  he  reminds  his 
people  that  the  natural  philosophy  of  Aristotle  has 
been  identified  with  Trent  dogmas,  as  well  as  with 
its  moral  and  intellectual  sequels,  the  new  decrees ; 
so  that  there  is  an  end  of  all  controversy.  So  far 
he  permits  his  schools  to  go  in  America,  but  no 
farther.     The  fact  comes  in  here  as  a  landmark. 


12.     THE   CRUSADES. 

And  the  Crusades,  which  lie  on  the  highest 
table-land  of  Papal  development,  between  the 
epochs  of  Gregory  VIII.  and  Innocent  III.,  must 
be  noted  here  for  a  like  purpose.  Like  the  Scho- 
lasticism to  which  the  Crusades  lent  new  arms  from 
the  schools  of  the  Saracens,  these  are  landmarks 
not  merely,  but  mighty  elements  as  well,  in  over- 
turning and  new-creating,  —  in  evolving  out  of 
chaos  a  new  world  of  thought  and  action  for  hu- 
manity. What  sublime  folly !  what  superlative 
crime  !  what  tokens  of  God's  way  among  nations, — 
"  From  seeminsr  evil  still  educing  good"  1 


l60       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Here  a  word  about  the  ennobling  theory  and  the 
painful  practical  history  of  chivalry.  It  appears 
best  in  allegory  like  Spenser's,  or  in  epic  song  like 
Tasso's.  Alas !  in  history,  the  Crusaders,  whose 
lives  were  vowed  to  the  service  of  Christian  wo- 
manhood, the  defence  of  maiden  modesty  and  of 
conjugal  chastity,  gave  themselves  over  to  unbri- 
dled excesses  of  debauchery,  under  banners  on 
which  was  portrayed  the  symbol  of  the  Lamb ; 
and  the  hosts,  who  knelt  on  the  holy  ground  and 
kissed  it  when  they  came  in  sight  of  Jerusalem, 
made  its  streets  run  with  blood  when  they  took  it 
from  the  Infidels.  The  moderation  of  the  Pay- 
nim  when  Omar  captured  it,  presents  a  contrast 
which  must  ever  crimson  Christian  cheeks  with 
shame.  Yet  if  the  age  of  chivalry  is  extinct,  the 
glorious  ideas  which  it  degraded  must  live  for- 
ever in  the  new  sentiment  of  Christian  nations. 
Born  of  the  Gospel,  the  Gospel  is  their  sure  sup- 
port ;  and  woman,  if  no  longer  the  inspirer  of 
quixotic  lists  and  tournaments,  finds  true  knight- 
hood in  the  hearts  and  the  homage  of  the  father, 
the  brother,  and  the  husband,  in  every  Christian 
home. 

When  we  come  to  the  convulsions  of  which 
Wiclif  and  John  Huss  were  the  pioneers,  we 
shall  be  forced  to  recognize  that  nations  had  been 
massed  and  unified  by  the  Crusades  to  necessitate 
great  transformations ;  and  that  the  Scholastics 
were  the  intellectual  gymnasts,  who,  better  than 
they  knew,  were  preparing  minds  and  consciences 
for  nobler  conflicts,  and  for  the  emancipation  of 
Europe  from  the  bondage  of  theory  into  the  free- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  i6l 

dom  of  experimental  philosophy.  Not  less  did 
the  Crusades  set  men  to  thinking,  enlarge  their 
knowledge  of  mankind,  awaken  just  views  of  the 
superior  culture  of  the  Greeks,  and  provide  for 
the  Revival  of  Learning. 


13.     BARBARISM. 

If  it  startles  us  to  find  the  Dark  Ages  settling 
down  upon  Christian  civilization  just  when  it  had 
begun  a  glorious  career  of  Truth  and  Life  among 
the  nations,  we  shall  find  our  surprise  reversed 
when  we  look  into  the  world  movements  of  those 
times.  It  is  rather  astonishing  that  Christianity 
itself  survived.1  For  take  any  map  of  Europe 
at  the  close  of  the  fifth  century,  and  what  do 
we  behold?  The  inundations  of  barbarism  had 
deluged  the  fairest  seats  of  Christendom ;  and  all 
those  earliest  sources  of  Latin  illumination  in 
Northern  Africa,  where  Tertullian  and  Cyprian 
and  Augustine  had  glorified  their  successive  ages, 
are  included  in  the  desolations.  Where  Carthage 
and  Hippo  had  nurtured  saints  and  scholars,  we 
find  the  kingdom  of  the  Vandals.  From  the  Pil- 
lars of  Hercules  northward  to  the  Loire  stretches 
the  dominion  of  the  Visigoths.  The  Salian  and 
Riparian  Franks  spread  over  the  North,  from  Brit- 
tany to  the  sources  of  the  Weser.  The  Ostrogoths 
occupy  all  Italy,  and  nearly  the  whole  Eastern 
shore  of  the  Adriatic,  sweeping  round  by  the 
Danube  to  the  Rhineland.  To  deal  with  these 
rude  races,  and  give  them  the  law  of  Christ,  was  a 

1  See  Note  K". 
II 


1 62       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

work  to  which  the  Church  addressed  herself  with 
fidelity.  But  look  again  at  the  map  of  Europe 
and  the  Mediterranean  in  the  age  of  Charlemagne. 
The  movements  of  the  barbarians  had  been  like  the 
waves  of  the  sea.  From  beyond  the  Danube  the 
Lombards  had  poured  into  Subalpine  Italy,  and 
Teutonized  the  fair  plains  watered  by  the  Po.  But 
far  more  terrible  is  the  condition  of  North  Africa 
and  Spain ;  the  Mohammedans  have  taken  them 
for  a  prey :  nearly  all  of  Spain  is  the  Caliphate  of 
Cordova.  And  now  the  Northmen  are  pouncing 
upon  the  Franks,  penetrating  all  their  harbours 
and  navigable  rivers;  under  the  name  of  Danes 
spreading  themselves  in  England ;  and  waxing 
more  and  more  terrible,  till  the  Litany  itself  re- 
ceives a  new  suffrage,  for  Christians  in  their 
churches  cried  unto  heaven,  "  From  Rollo  and 
the  Northmen,  good  Lord,  deliver  us." 

14.  EXPIRY  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 

I  have  not  named  the  Huns  and  the  Magyars 
swarming  in  from  the  Tartar  hives  of  Asia,  but  per- 
haps I  have  said  enough  to  remind  you  what  a 
field  for  research  is  here  opened  to  the  student; 
and  quite  enough  to  explain  the  intervention  of  the 
"  Dark  Ages."  What  a  dilution  of  all  good,  what 
an  infusion  of  all  evil,  we  have  here!  For  a  time, 
the  Arabians,  who  had  stolen  Christian  learning,1 
became  its  conservators  in  their  own  East,  — 

"  Where  science  with  the  good  Al-Maimon  dwelt,"  — 

and  in  Spain,  where  Christians  went  to  them  for 

1  See  Note  L". 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  163 

knowledge.  We  retain  the  Arabic  numerals,  and 
most  useful  they  are;  and  algebra  is  the  most 
charming  of  mathematical  processes;  but  while 
the  Infidel  kept  the  magazine  of  science  till  Chris- 
tians once  more  could  bring  out  its  stores,  the  in- 
crease of  knowledge  among  men  owed  little  or 
nothing  to  the  schools  of  Islam.  Quickened  to 
active  exertions  of  mind  by  the  Scholastics,  and 
enlarged  by  the  Crusades  in  every  faculty  that  is 
nurtured  by  observation,  Christendom  awakes  at 
the  close  of  the  fourteenth  age  "  like  a  giant  re- 
freshed with  wine."  Here  we  greet  the  Revival  of 
Learning.  Bajazet  was  now  menacing  Constanti- 
nople, but  God  checked  him,  for  Tamerlane  had 
invaded  Syria.  In  Europe  the  shameless  Papal 
schism  perpetuated  the' scandals  of  the  Dark  Ages, 
but  was  a  help  to  the  great  awakening.  In  Eng- 
land the  Plantagenets  came  to  an  end  by  the  mur- 
der of  Richard  the  Second,  never  to  be  forgotten 
while  Shakespeare's  genius  reduces  English  history 
to  incomparable  painting  in  words.  The  accession 
of  the  House  of  Lancaster  reminds  us  that  the 
crusading  spirit  is  not  yet  extinct,  when  King 
Henry  the  Fourth  is  made  to  say,  — 

"  Therefore,  friends, 
As  far  as  to  the  sepulchre  of  Christ  .  .  . 
Forthwith  a  power  of  English  shall  we  levy  .  .  . 
To  chase  these  pagans  in  those  holy  fields 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
Which  fourteen  hundred  years  ago  were  nailed 
For  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross." 

With  commendable  license,  though  with  apocry- 
phal history  and  a  gross  anachronism,  the  incom- 


1 64       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

parable  poet  manages  to  wind  up  the  play  with 
a  rhythmical  flourish,  in  which  the  whole  spirit  of 
the  preceding  centuries  is  epitomized.  The  lan- 
guage, slightly  changed,  might  well  describe  St. 
Louis,  with  whom  the  Crusades  in  fact  expired :  — 

"  Many  a  time  hath  banished  Norfolk  fought 
For  Jesu  Christ  in  glorious  Christian  field, 
Streaming  the  ensign  of  the  Christian  cross 
Against  black  pagans,  Turks,  and  Saracens  ; 
And,  toiled  with  works  of  war,  retired  himself 
To  Italy,  and  there  at  Venice  gave 
His  body  to  that  pleasant  country's  earth, 
And  his  pure  soul  unto  his  captain  Christ, 
Under  whose  colours  he  had  fought  so  long." 

But  when  the  Crusades  were  turned  against 
Christians,  who  were  massacred  by  whole  races  in 
the  South  of  France,  under  the  bloody  Innocent 
III.,  it  was  time  to  stop.  And  when  Henry  dies 
in  the  Jerusalem  chamber  at  Westminster,  crusad- 
ing is  extinct  forever,  and  the  new  period  is  well 
advanced.  I  always  note  the  death  of  Richard 
and  of  Chaucer,  in  A.  D.  1400,  as  the  limit  of  the 
dark  period.  One  century  more  of  the  Middle 
Ages  remains  ;  it  is  the  thrilling,  charming,  marvel- 
lous Cinque-Cento,  the  fifteenth  century. 

15.     THE   CINQUE-CENTO. 

We  magnify  the  Cinque-Cento,  and  use  this  term 
with  reference  to  the  fine  arts  too  exclusively. 
I  borrow  this  convenient  term  for  the  age  that 
brought  with  it  the  elements  of  all  we  now  enjoy, 
in  letters  and  arts,  in  civilization,  in  freedom,  in  the 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  \6$ 

restoration  of  truth  to  the  nations,  and  in  a  genu- 
ine Reformation  to  our  English  forefathers.  In  a 
rapid  review  of  this  century  of  wonders,  I  hasten 
to  a  close  of  this  Lecture.1 

At  the  opening  of  this  age,  we  find  John  Huss 
confessor  to  the  Queen  of  Bohemia.  Note  that ; 
and  this  also :  the  infamous  statute  for  burning 
heretics  is  enacted  in  England,  under  which  Sawtrd 
perishes  as  a  Wiclifite.  Jerome  of  Prague  is  study- 
ing in  Oxford.  Tamerlane  enters  Bagdad  and 
Damascus,  and  prepares  to  invade  Asia  Minor. 
In  A.  D.  1409  there  are  not  less  than  three  Popes, 
cursing  and  excommunicating  one  another,  and 
men  in  nations  for  their  respective  adhesions.  In 
A.  D.  141 2,  Huss  burns  a  papal  indulgence,  and  he 
and  Jerome  denounce  the  traffic  in  such  things. 
This  was  a  century  before  Luther  imitated  them. 
Shortly  after,  Huss  himself  is  burned  at  Constance, 
and  Sigismund  earns  infamy  by  betraying  him. 
The  Council  of  Constance  revives  the  traditions  of 
Frankfort,  and  deposes  the  Pope.  It  has  its  glory 
and  its  shame.  It  burned  Jerome  of  Prague  after 
Huss,  and  ordered  Wiclif's  bones  to  be  cremated 
and  scattered.  This  Council  closes  in  A.  D.  1418. 
We  soon  reach  the  romantic  episode  of  Joan  of 
Arc;  the  Papal  schism  is  closed  by  the  heroic 
action  of  the  Council  of  Basle,  which  continues 
the  traditions  of  Frankfort,  and  deposes  another 
Pope. 

And  here  we  may  turn  to  the  more  gratifying 
field  of  Art  and  Literature.  We  have  seen  that 
in  England  the  death  of  Chaucer  marks  the  limit 
1  See  Note  M". 


1 66       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

of  a  long  period  of  night  watches.  To  him  and 
to  Wiclif,  who  greeted  the  day  dawn,  and  reflected 
it  as  from  mountain  tops,  we  owe  the  English  lan- 
guage and  the  glorious  beginnings  of  its  literature, 
in  prose  and  poetry.  But  on  the  greater  scale  of 
Continental  progress,  Dante  had  already  created 
the  Italian  language,  and  from  him  and  his  bril- 
liant successors,  Petrarch  and  Boccacio,  Chaucer's 
genius  had  caught  the  spark  that  soon  burst  into 
flame  in  his  Canterbury  Tales.  John  Gower,  his 
contemporary,  lived  a  few  years  in  the  age  we  are 
reviewing. 

16.     THE   MEDICI. 

The  illustrious  family  of  the  Medici  had  been 
growing  up  in  Florence,  in  the  preceding  century, 
and  now  Cosmo  enters  on  his  great  career;  mak- 
ing merchandise  tributary  to  letters,  founding  a 
university,  and  ransacking  the  East  for  manuscripts, 
which  came  with  spices  and  taffetas  from  the  Le- 
vant in  every  argosy  that  enriched  his  coffers.1  His 
grandson,  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  succeeds  to 
his  great  power  and  influence  in  the  Florentine 
republic,  and  largely  augments  his  work,  as  the 
patron  of  scholars  and  of  artists.  Cimabue  and 
Giotto  had  created  pictorial  art  in  Italy ;  but  now 
the  invention  of  oil  colours  by  the  brothers  Van 
Eyck,  at  Ghent,  proves  that  the  fogs  of  Flanders 
as  well  as  the  sunbeams  of  the  South  presaged  the 
wonderful  development  of  painting  about  to  be 
realized.  This  art  reached  its  acme  at  a  bound. 
1  See  Note  N". 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  1 67 

Leonardo,  Michael  Angclo,  and  Perugino's  great 
pupil,  Raffaclle,  all  start  up  in  this  century,  though 
they  lived  also  into  the  next,  and  they  have  never 
been  surpassed.  Exploring  the  treasures  of  the 
Pitti  Palace,  in  Florence,  I  saw  an  insignificant  bit 
of  marble,  which  I  recognized  at  once  as  a  link  in 
a  great  history.  Michael  Angelo,  a  mere  youth, 
was  carving  that  head  of  an  old  faun,  in  the  Medi- 
cean  gardens,  when  Lorenzo  observed  its  merits. 
He  casually  criticised  it,  "  You  must  not  give 
an  old  faun  such  fair  teeth,"  and  he  walked  on. 
Soon,  after,  however,  he  encountered  the  young 
man  again,  and  saw  that  his  hint  had  been  taken. 
Michael  had,  with  admirable  skill,  contrived  to 
give  the  mouth  and  teeth  an  appearance  of  age, 
without  disfiguring  what  was  attractive  in  those 
features.  This  secured  Lorenzo  as  his  patron ; 
and  so  grew  up  that  unrivalled  master  of  the  three 
domains  of  sculpture,  painting,  and  architecture, 
who  moreover  was  no  contemptible  poet.  He 
lived  to  embellishish  Florence  with  his  Titanic 
statues ;  to  paint  "  The  Last  Judgment "  on  the 
walls  of  the  Sistine  Chapel,  and  to  lift  the  Pan- 
theon to  the  clouds  in  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's. 
The  Middle  Ages  expired  in  glory,  if  only  for  this 
outburst  of  the  fine  arts ;  but  in  the  nobler  realms 
of  intellect,  of  the  useful  arts,  and  of  faith,  it  saw 
greater  things  than  these. 

17.    GOTHIC  ARCHITECTURE. 

The  link  between  the    fine    arts  and  those  too 
often  scorned  as  merely  utilitarian  is  Architecture. 


1 68       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

If  we  go  back  to  the  Middle  Ages  and  trace  the 
rise  and  development  of  the  pointed  architecture  (to 
which  Wren  applied  the  nickname  of  "  Gothic  "), 
we  cannot  but  acknowledge  that  even  the  Dark 
Ages  brought  some  goodly  things  to  light.  We 
may  justly  call  it  the  "  Christian  Architecture," 
and,  while  admitting  its  great  defects,  we  must  ad- 
mire some  of  its  characteristic  ideas.  Whether 
designedly  or  not,  it  imitates  nature :  the  forest  has 
naves,  and  aisles,  and  arches,  with  which  its  spirit 
strikingly  coincides.  Again,  its  aspiring  vaults 
and  lofty  spires,  its  clustered  columns  uplifting  its 
aerial  clere-stories,  and  its  abounding  vertical  lines, 
all  spring  heavenward,  and  lift  the  eye  and  the 
mind,  if  not  the  heart,  to  God.  In  the  decorated 
examples  at  Lincoln  we  see  its  perfection  ;  but  even 
the  "Academic  Gothic,"  as  I  prefer  to  call  "  the  per- 
pendicular," retains  these  features,  and  in  its  Tudor 
debasement  we  find  much  that  harmonizes  with  the 
faith.  How  notable,  too,  its  reality!  It  adorns 
what  other  styles  of  the  art,  with  awkward  make- 
shifts, strive  to  conceal;  it  turns  every  prop, 
every  stay,  every  beam  and  joint,  into  an  aug- 
mentation of  beauty.  It  does  not  hide  its  very 
crutches,  for  such  are  the  flying  buttresses  which 
it  so  triumphantly  elevates  into  graces ;  and  down 
in  its  crypts,  and  where  only  the  eye  of  the  Omnis- 
cient penetrates,  it  covers  no  deformity;  it  builds 
for  the  Master-builder  above.  I  fear  "  the  dim 
religious  light"  that  so  fascinates  us  is  neverthe- 
less  a  striking  symbol  of  the  ages  in  which  this 
architecture  was  created. 

It  is  not  enlightened  art  in  any  practical  sense. 


735KB  MIDDLE  AGES.  1 69 

Michclct1  has  severely  remarked  upon  its  feeble- 
ness; it  is  ever  crumbling  and  needing  repairs;  it 
is  clamped  and  tied  together  by  corroding  bands 
of  iron;  it  calls  in  a  thousand  artifices  and  ex- 
pedients to  supply  its  lack  of  strength ;  its  very 
buttresses  announce  the  inadequate  massiveness 
of  the  walls ;  and  when,  as  in  the  chapter-house, 
it  erects  a  central  pillar,  like  the  handle  of  an  um- 
brella, to  uphold  a  canopy  of  stone,  it  proclaims 
its  inability  to  erect  a  vaulted  dome  that  shall 
stand   by  itself. 

iS.     THE   NEW  CHRISTIAN   ARCHITECTURE. 

This  was  the  humiliating  defect  exposed  by 
Brunelleschi  when  he  "broke  the  egg";  a  feat 
which  has  no  force  as  told  of  Columbus.2  The 
Florentines  were  ambitious  of  erecting  a  cathedral 
with  an  unrivalled  dome.  The  Teutonic  archi- 
tects came  over  the  Alps  to  do  the  work,  and  pro- 
posed to  uphold  it  by  the  central  pillar,  which  is 
but  the  symbol  of  decrepitude,  the  old  man  bowed 
upon  his  staff.  "  I  would  make  it  stand  by  itself," 
said  Brunelleschi.  "But  how?  "  was  the  inquiry. 
"  Like  that  Ggg,''  said  he ;  and  there,  indeed,  like 
an  egg-shell,  light  and  perfect  in  its  own  fabric,  it 
stands  to  this  day,  and  may  stand  forever.  It  is 
the  only  perfect  dome  in  Christendom.  Michael 
Angelo  would  not  consent  to  imitate  it,  but  con- 
fessed his  inability  to  rival  it,  when  he  designed  the 
dome  of  St.  Peter's.  The  Italians  would  have  no 
more  of  Gothic  art.  It  melts  away,  south  of  the 
1  See  Note  O".  2  See   Note  P". 


I/O       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Alps,  in  the  fairy  decorations  of  that  Milanese  cathe- 
dral of  snow.  The  recent  facade  of  Santa  Croce  at 
Florence  proves  that  such  art  belongs  not  to  the 
sunny  South;  it  is  feeble  beyond  expression.  But 
the  works  of  Brunelleschi  and  of  Bramante  and  of 
Angelo  will  last,  and  may  supply  to  practical  ages 
a  more  enduring  Christian  architecture. 

19.     NAVIGATION. 

We  may  well  look  on  in  breathless  wonder  as 
we  follow  this  age  of  miracles  in  its  fertility  of  in- 
vention, and  its  arts  of  progress.  Under  John  I., 
who  founds  a  new  line  of  kings,  and  under  the 
patronage  of  his  son  Henry,  Portugal  takes  the 
lead  in  maritime  adventure.  The  Azores  are  dis- 
covered in  A.  D.  1432,  and  Cape  Verde  about  ten 
years  later.  In  1460,  they  have  discovered  the 
isles  off  the  coast  of  Guinea;  the  next  year  an  ex- 
pedition is  sent,  overland,  to  India  ;  in  i486,  Diaz 
reaches  the  southern  extremity  of  Africa;  in  1496, 
Vasco  de  Gama  doubles  the  Cape  ;  the  next  year 
he  arrives  at  Calcutta ;  he  founds  the  Portuguese 
empire  in  India ;  the  highways  of  commerce  are 
revolutionized,  and  Venice  declines. 

But,  more  and  better,  in  1442  is  born,  at  Genoa, 
Christopher  Columbus.  In  1484,  he  pleads  in 
vain  with  John  II.  of  Portugal  to  give  him  the 
means  of  exploring  the  Atlantic.  It  is  not  till 
1492  that  he  sails  from  Palos,  with  his  wretched 
little  fleet,  for  regions  unknown;  but  (October  12) 
he  sights  the  first  shore  of  a  new  world  ;  he  presses 
on  to  Cuba  and  Hayti,  and  in  1493  introduces  the 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  171 

savages  of  Transatlantic  regions  at  the  court  of 
Ferdinand  and  Ysabcl.  After  pushing  his  adven- 
tures with  continuous  success,  he  is  brought  to  the 
same  court  in  chains,  as  the  century  comes  to  an 
end.  What  an  end  for  such  an  age,  and  for  its 
noblest  hero ! 

At  this  date  the  discovery  of  Newfoundland 
by  the  Cabots  (a.  D.  1498)  opens  the  grand  history 
of  the  English  race  in  America.  Vespucci  robs 
Columbus  of  his  just  rights,  by  giving  his  second- 
rate  name  to  the  continent.  Copernicus,  born  at 
Thorn,  in  A.  D.  1473,  was  now  pursuing  his  studies 
of  the  universe.  Surely  the  ages  of  light  were 
returning  — 

"  To  warm  the  nations  with  redoubled  ray." 

20.    PRINTING. 

The  Crusades  had  introduced  the  cotton  paper 
of  the  Arabs  into  Europe,  and  its  manufacture 
with  the  stronger  fibre  of  linen  was  established  in 
Germany  in  the  preceding  age.  But  now  comes 
the  art  of  printing,  the  discovery  of  which  must 
be  regarded  as  not  half  so  great  a  wonder  as  the 
fact  that  God  had  held  back  the  mind  and  hand 
of  man  from  the  most  simple  of  all  conclusions 
until  now.  Every  impression  of  a  seal,  every  foot- 
mark in  the  sand  or  clay  of  the  soil,  every  stamp 
upon  coins,  ought  to  have  suggested  it,  ages  be- 
forehand. God  willed  it  to  wait  till  now,  when  the 
grandest  moral  and  civil  revolutions  were  needed 
to  introduce  the  last  ages  of  the  world.  Strange 
to  say,  stereotyping  came  first ;   for  such  were  the 


172        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

wooden  tables  of  Koster  in  1430,  though  it  took 
the  sluggish  wit  of  mankind  nearly  four  centuries 
more  to  return  to  the  hint.  Gutenberg  (a.  d.  1442) 
had  taught  the  utility  of  moveable  types,  and 
Faust  had  brought  the  art  to  a  practical  degree  of 
perfection  (a.  d.  1450)  by  an  improvement  of  the 
press  and  the  manufacture  of  printers'  ink.  In 
A.  D.  1455,  the  glory  of  the  art  was  reached,  when 
the  final  sheets  of  the  first  printed  Bible  were 
folded  and  bound  at  Mentz,  by  Gutenberg,  Faust, 
and  Schaffer.  Caxton,  in  a  chapel  of  Westmin- 
ster Abbey,  about  ten  years  later,  was  working 
the  first  press  in  England.  He  died  before  he 
knew  that  a  new  world  had  just  been  discovered, 
where  in  our  day  the  art  in  all  its  beauty  and  per- 
fection is  exercised  in  Chicago  and  in  the  great 
port  of  the  Pacific,  —  cities  which  fifty  years  ago 
were  but  hamlets,  amid  the  wigwams  of  savages. 
Yet  it  deserves  to  be  noted  that  the  art  reached 
wellnigh  the  acme  of  its  beauty  in  the  age  of  its 
birth,  when  Aldus  (a.  d.  1494),  set  up  his  press  at 
Venice,  and  introduced  the  delicate  Italic  letter,  — 
a  refinement  upon  that  of  manuscript. 

21.     GREAT   MOVEMENTS. 

Now,  also,  was  wood  engraving  introduced,  and 
musical  notes  were  cut  in  type-metal.  Watches 
were  made  at  Nuremberg  and  world-maps  were  sent 
forth  from  the  same  city.  But  while  these  arts  of 
peace  were  in  progress,  the  "Wars  of  the  Roses" 
were  doing  a  useful  work  of  another  sort  in  Eng- 
land,  and  the    expedition   of  Charles   VIII.    into 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  1 73 

Italy,  with  his  invasion  of  Rome  on  the  last  day  of 
the  year  1494,  marks  a  new  era  in  the  art  of  war.1 
His  invention  of  a  comparatively  light  and  move- 
able artillery,  and  the  improvement  of  fire-arms  for 
soldiery,  with  his  passage  of  the  Alps  and  auda- 
cious treatment  of  the  pontiff,  were  a  foreshadow- 
ing of  the  French  campaigns  in  Italy  four  hundred 
years  later.  Napoleon's  "  flying  artillery "  was 
but  another  stage  of  progress ;  the  idea  of  bat- 
teries not  only  possible  on  the  field,  but  transfer- 
able from  point  to  point,  belongs  to  this  age  of 
modern  warfare. 

But  the  glory  and  the  shame  of  the  century  re- 
mains to  be  told.  Providentially  the  art  of  print- 
ing and  all  the  progress  of  the  age  circle  round  its 
noontide ;  a  crisis  which  proved  a  blessing  to  man- 
kind, as  it  created  the  revival  of  learning  and  in- 
sured the  reformation  of  religion,  the  exposure  of 
the  Decretalist  and  other  Papal  frauds,  the  study 
of  Holy  Scripture  in  the  originals,  the  abasement 
of  the  Papacy,  the  advance  of  freedom  and  of  con- 
stitutional law,  and  the  illumination  of  the  world. 
Again  the  Gospel  came  forth  from  the  East.  All 
these  blessings  were  wrought  out  of  an  evil,  in 
itself  most  disgraceful  and  menacing  to  Christen- 
dom:  the  fall  of  Constantinople  in  A.  D.  1453,  and 
the  planting  of  that  cancer  in  the  breast  of  civil- 
ization, the  unspeakably  abominable  Turkey  in 
Europe. 

1  See  Note  Q". 


174        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

22.     THE    FALL   OF   CONSTANTINOPLE. 

The  Council  of  Florence,  in  A.  D.  1439,  grew 
out  of  the  impending  horrors  which  the  Greeks 
foresaw  must  soon  overwhelm  them.  For  ten 
years  had  they  repelled  the  arms  of  Bajazet,  when 
God  sent  Timour  the  Tartar  to  their  aid  ;  but  now 
the  Turks  were  at  their  very  doors.  Scutari  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Ottomans,  and,  reinforced  by 
siege-guns  with  balls  of  granite,  were  preparing 
for  a  final  assault.  Every  motive  appealed  to  the 
Christian  universe  for  a  crusade,  which  reason  and 
righteousness  would  have  justified.  The  cause  of 
the  Greeks  was  the  common  cause  of  Europe  and  of 
humanity;  but  the  Popes  saw  their  opportunity,  at 
last,  and  would  give  no  aid  to  the  Easterns  save 
at  the  price  of  their  submission.  Their  delegates 
at  Florence  were  starved  and  menaced  into  a 
patched-up  compliance,1  and  the  "  Uniat "  com- 
promises were  agreed  on.  But  they  were  received 
on  their  return  with  a  howl  of  execration,  and 
the  Greeks,  true  to  the  ancient  Nicene  consti- 
tutions, once  more  rejected  the  Popes.  The  Turks 
might  massacre  them,  but  the  fraudulent  Decretals 
should  not  enslave  them.  As  the  consequence,  on 
the  29th  of  May,  Constantine  Palseologus,  the  last 
of  the  Caesars,  perished  on  the  walls  of  New 
Rome,  which  for  more  than  a  thousand  years  had 
been  the  metropolis  of  Christendom.  Under  the 
dome  of  Justinian,  in  the  solemn  night  before,  he 
had  received  the  holy  sacrament  of  the  altar.  That 
day  the  streets  ran  with  blood,  and,  after  the  brutal 
1  See  Note  R". 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  I  75 

example  of  Mohammed  II.,  their  chief  women 
were  given  over  to  unmentionable  outrage ;  twelve 
thousand  houses  and  churches  were  burned ;  thou- 
sands were  put  to  the  sword.  Gibbon,  with  levity, 
tells  of  the  horrors  to  which  virgins  were  deliv- 
ered, of  sixty  thousand  sold  into  slavery,  and  of 
the  Hippodrome  streaming  with  blood.  He  shares 
not  our  sense  of  shame,  when  he  tells  how  the 
imam  ascended  the  pulpit,  and  the  muezzin  cried 
from  its  turrets,  "  Great  is  Allah,  and  Mohammed 
is  his  prophet !  "  To  the  disgrace  of  our  mother 
England,  this  goes  on  still;  and  twelve  million 
Christians  writhe  under  the  heels  of  three  million 
Turks,  because  Turkish  bonds  are  held  in  London. 
O  Lord,  how  long?  If  England  will  not  hear 
their  cries,  then  Godspeed  to  Russia ! 

23.     LIGHT   OUT   OF   DARKNESS. 

The  Greeks  were  driven  out  of  their  capital,  but 
they  brought  learning  to  Florence  and  to  Rome. 
Now  were  the  Greek  Scriptures  read  once  more, 
and  the  Fathers  began  to  be  printed  and  studied. 
Luther's  great  gift  of  the  Bible  to  Germany  must 
rank  as  second  to  the  restoration  of  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment by  Erasmus.  Aristotle's  alloy  in  Christian  the- 
ology began  to  be  deprecated,  as  Plato  began  to  be 
loved.  The  Greeks  who  had  fled  to  Italy  before  the 
downfall  had  enabled  Nicholas  V.  to  found  the  Vati- 
can Library,  and  now  libraries  began  to  be  multi- 
plied. It  was  well ;  for,  as  the  century  came  to  its 
end,  the  Papacy  had  returned  to  its  vomit  and  to  its 
wallowing  in  the  mire.     The  age  of  Theodosia  and 


176       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Marozia  was  revived  again  under  the  infamous  Bor- 
gia (Alexander  VI.),  and  Rome  continued  to  be 
the  hot-bed  of  ecclesiastical  crime  and  debauchery, 
when  a  young  Augustinian  monk  came,  and  saw, 
and  went  away  to  conquer.  Michael  Angelo  was 
painting  the  Sistine  Chapel  with  a  parable  which  the 
Papal  Court  was  too  stupid  to  comprehend.1  He 
wrote  Tekel  on  their  walls,  and  reminded  them  that 
prophets  and  sibyls  alike  foretold  the  Last  Judg- 
ment. He  portrayed  its  awful  menace  before 
their  eyes,  and  scrupled  not  to  put  popes  and  car- 
dinals among  the  damned.  Some  whined  when 
they  saw  their  own  portraits  in  the  terrible  carica- 
ture, but  they  were  too  torpid  to  comprehend  the 
length  and  breadth  of  such  a  prophecy.  A  day  of 
retribution  was  close  at  hand.  God  was  arising  to 
shake  terribly  the  earth. 

1  See  Note  S". 


LECTURE  VI. 

THE   CHURCH   OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS. 
I.    IDENTITY   AND   CONTINUITY. 

LET  me  now  invite  you  to  a  survey  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  Anglican  Church,  its  origin,  its 
subjection  to  the  Paparchy  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and, 
finally,  of  its  restoration  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
We  shall  see  that  from  its  origin  until  now  it  is  the 
same  identical  Church,  —  no  more  another  now 
than  the  man  who  has  been  a  prodigal,  and  who  has 
regained  his  home  and  his  patrimony,  is  other  than 
the  embryo  that  was  once  in  the  womb,  the  babe 
that  once  drew  nurture  from  its  mother's  breast, 
the  youth  who  declined  from  his  parental  example 
and  teachings,  and  the  sufferer  who,  amid  the  filth 
and  the  starvation  of  the  swineyard,  came  to  him- 
self, and  said,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 
The  Anglican  Church  was  primitive  and  pure; 
she  became  enslaved  and  defiled ;  she  regained 
her  liberties,  she  washed  and  is  clean.  But  she  is 
none  other  to-day,  as  to  individuality  and  identity, 
than  she  was  when  Italians  were  sent  to  put  chains 
upon  her;  when  she  shook  her  chains,  in  defiance, 
as  she  chafed  under  them ;  when  she  lay  down 
and  slept  awhile,  baffled  and  degraded ;  or  when, 

12 


178       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

at  last,  she  woke  and  broke  from  her  fetters,  and 
began  to  be  herself  again ;  until  now  God  has 
given  her  to  many  nations  and  set  her  footsteps  in 
the  seas,  and  enabled  us  to  say,  "  Her  sound  is 
gone  out  into  all  lands,  and  her  words  into  the 
ends  of  the  world."  Such  is  the  outline  of  her 
history,  which  I  propose  to  make  clear  and  read- 
ily recognized  by  the  illumination  of  truths  which 
have  been  too  little  understood. 

2.     ORIGIN   OF  THE   CHURCH   IN   BRITAIN. 

There  are  many  evidences  that  the  Gospel  was 
preached  in  Britain  by  disciples  of  St.  Paul.  Three 
names  in  his  latest  catalogue  of  Roman  saints  1  may 
not  have  secured  your  close  attention :  "  Pudens, 
Linus,  Claudia,"  —  that  is,  Lin  and  Gladys.  These 
twain  were  Britons,  probably,  and  their  names 
are  thus  Latinized,  as  Saul  is  also  called  Paul. 
Pudens,  who  had  served  in  Britain  as  a  soldier, 
married  this  British  lady,  as  we  know  from  Mar- 
tial's epigram.  Caradoc,  whose  sister  or  daugh- 
ter she  may  have  been,  had  doubtless  become  a 
Christian  when  he  moralized  on  the  Coliseum,  as 
it  rose  before  his  eyes,  in  language  which  only 
Christians  understood,  and  which  he  borrowed 
from  common  sayings  of  early  Christians.2  The 
return  of  Caradoc  to  his  distant  home,  accompa- 
nied by  Christian  missionaries,  who  were  afterwards 
the  evangelists  of  Wales,  is  a  theory  supported  by 
striking  probabilities,  while  it  accounts,  as  nothing 
else  can,  for  inscriptions  and  ancient  monuments 

1  2  Tim.  iv.  21.  2  See  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  iii.  p.  108. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.      1 79 

at  Chichester.  The  names  of  ancient  sees  in  Wales, 
such  as  St.  Asaph's  and  St.  David's,  suggest  that 
Jewish  converts  of  St.  Paul  were  their  founders, 
and  learned  antiquarians  have  detected  Welsh 
forms  of  several  other  saintly  names  in  the  Pauline 
calendar,  among  the  ancient  titles  of  their  villages 
and  towns.  The  history  of  "  Lesser  Britain,"  or 
Armorica,  confirms  all  this;  for  the  two  Britains 
were  inhabited  by  the  same  race.  The  Greek 
Menology  retains  the  old  tradition  that  Aristobulus, 
mentioned  by  St.  Paul,  was  one  of  the  Seventy,  and 
became  a  British  evangelist. 


3.     PERIODS. 

Three  periods  should  here  be  primarily  noted : 
that  of  (1)  the  Primitive  British  Church,  that  of 
(2)  the  Early  English  Church,  and  (3)  that  of  the 
Later  English  Church.  The  Norman  epoch  (a.  d. 
1066)  is  the  turning  point  in  Anglican  history  in 
its  relations  with  Rome.  Thereafter,  we  note  three 
periods  again:  that  of  (1)  the  Transition  to  Papal 
Subjection,  that  of  (2)  the  Paparchy  Established, 
and  (3)  that  of  the  Restoration.  As  to  the  Primi- 
tive British,  a  few  additional  words  must  suffice. 

4.     THE   PRIMITIVE   PERIOD. 

Lucius,  one  of  the  British  chiefs,  is  said  to  have 

been  the  first  Christian  king;   but  the  legends  of 

Edessa,1  if  they  are  to  be  credited,  would  deprive 

us  of  this  glory.     He  lived  in  the  time  of  Aurelius, 

1  See  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  viii.  p.  647. 


l80       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

when,  had  he  been  known  to  the  Romans,  he  could 
hardly  have  escaped  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  St. 
Alban,  who  suffered  in  Diocletian's  world-wide 
massacre,  is  reputed  the  first  British  martyr.  In 
A.  D.  314,  before  the  Nicene  era,  we  noted  the 
presence  of  three  British  bishops  at  the  Council  of 
Aries,  a  fact  which  seems  to  me  to  account  for 
the  Easter  usages  to  which  the  British  Church  so 
tenaciously  adhered.  These  bishops  found  them 
corresponding  with  their  own  traditions  in  the 
churches  of  Pothinus  and  Irenaeus.  But  of  this 
by  and  by.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  add,  as  we  must, 
that  Morgan,  better  known  as  Pelagius,  was  also  a 
Briton.  His  heresy  caused  great  evils,  not  only  in 
the  unlearned  and  isolated  church  of  his  birth  and 
baptism,  but  ever  since  among  Christians.  On 
the  other  hand,  as  St.  Paul  has  said,1  "  there  must 
be  also  heresies  among  you,  that  they  which  are 
approved  may  be  made  manifest " ;  and  we  owe 
to  this  principle  of  the  divine  economy  that  mas- 
terly exposition  of  the  doctrines  of  grace  in  which 
the  faith  of  primitive  Christians  is  witnessed  against 
Pelagius  by  St.  Augustine. 

5.     GROANS   OF   THE   BRITONS. 

In  A.  D.  446,  "  the  groans  of  the  Britons  "  attest 
their  inveterate  sufferings  from  barbarous  Picts  and 
Scots ;  and  in  A.  D.  449,  the  arrival  of  the  Saxons 
enables  us  to  date  the  Early  English  period  from 
the  middle  of  the  fifth  century.  Invited  to  come 
in  and  drive  out  the  Picts,  our  forefathers,  the 
1  1  Cor.  xi.  19. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       l8l 

Angles  and  Saxons,  took  their  pay  by  settling  in 
the  delightful  lands  they  had  defended.  In  the 
Isle  of  Wight  and  the  opposite  coasts  settled  the 
Jutes.  Essex,  Wessex,  and  Sussex  tell  the  story 
of  the  Saxon  immigration,  and  the  Angles  took  the 
rest  of  the  eastern  coast  into  custody  northward 
and  far  above  the  Humber.  Such  are  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  forefathers,  and  I  am  not  very  proud  of 
their  conduct  But  if  they  proved  treacherous 
allies  of  the  native  Christians,  they  were  pagans, 
who  knew  no  better ;  and,  feeble  as  were  the  Chris- 
tians, they  turned  upon  them  at  times  and  gave 
them  a  terrible  threshing.  Gildas,  their  own  British 
chronicler,  reproaches  them  as  believers  for  not 
preaching  to  the  Saxons,  whom  we  may  now  for 
the  first  time  call  "  the  English,"  the  Gospel  of 
peace  and  love.  The  Saxons  continued  heathen 
till  converted  by  the  missionaries  of  Gregory. 

6.     CONVERSION   OF   THE   ENGLISH. 

His  interest  had  been  excited  by  the  appearance 
of  fair-haired  boys  from  England  in  the  Roman 
slave-market.  "  If  only  they  were  Christians," 
said  the  holy  man,  "  not  Angles,  but  Angels,  they 
might  be  called."  When  he  became  bishop,  as  if 
remembering  where  Pelagius  came  from,  he  sent 
to  convert  them  Augustine,  a  namesake  of  the 
great  Bishop  of  Hippo.  Now,  though  Gregory 
dealt  with  his  missionaries  and  their  converts  in 
Britain  very  much  as  we  deal  with  ours  in  China 
and  Japan,  his  conduct,  even  as  related  by  Bede  at 
a  later  period,  with  the  disadvantage  of  his  less 


1 82        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

primitive  conceptions,  is  altogether  in  keeping  with 
Gregory's  primitive  assertion  of  his  adhesion  to 
Nicene  canons.  He  was  not "  the  Universal  Bishop  " ; 
he  dictated  no  deference  to  his  see,  but  advised 
Augustine  to  adopt  improvements,  if  he  saw  any, 
among  the  churches  of  Gaul ;  and  we  cannot 
doubt  that,  had  he  known  of  their  continued  ex- 
istence, he  would  have  advised  a  generous  and 
brotherly  course  in  dealing  with  the  ancient  Chris- 
tians of  the  land.  These  had  retreated  westward, 
and  were  now  hemmed  in  among  the  mountains  of 
Wales,  and  by  the  Southern  seas  in  what  we  know 
as  Cornwall,  perhaps  "the  Horn  of  Wales." 

7.    THE   EARLY   ENGLISH. 

Thus  the  Early  English  1  period  opens  with  the 
seventh  century,  say  A.  D.  601.  Augustine  re- 
paired to  France  to  be  consecrated  by  the  Bishop 
of  Aries  (Virgilius),  who  was  assisted,  according  to 
the  Nicene  canons,  by  two  other  bishops,  of  whom 
the  name  of  one  only  has  come  down  to  us  ;  that  of 
./Etherius,  Bishop  of  Lyons.  He  succeeded  from 
St.  John,  through  Polycarp,  Pothinus,  and  Irenaeus, 
as  the  thirty-second  bishop  of  that  most  primitive 
and  illustrious  see.  Thus  Augustine  became  the 
first  Bishop  of  Canterbury,  deriving  his  apostolic 
office  from  the  churches  of  Ephesus  and  Smyrna, 
both  mentioned  in  the  Apocalypse,  and  saluted  by 
an  epistle  from  our  ascended  Lord  himself  with 
exceptional  tokens  of  approbation. 

1  Not  to  be  understood  of  architecture. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       1 83 

8.     CONSEQUENCES. 

Great  gratitude  is  due  to  Gregory  for  his  nurs- 
ing care  and  faithfulness  in  planting  the  Church  of 
England;  but  we  must  not  think  it  strange  that 
the  relations  thus  established  between  England  and 
the  great  Apostolic  See  of  the  West  led  to  conse- 
quences not  in  themselves  happy,  nor  even  canon- 
ical. Our  own  missionary  bishops  naturally  write 
to  their  brethren  here  for  instructions,  and  the 
English  missionaries  write  personally  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
It  was  much  more  necessary  for  similar  relations  to 
be  kept  up,  in  those  days,  with  the  great  metrop- 
olis of  Western  Christendom,  because  books  were 
few  and  all  sources  of  information  rare.1  Let  us 
imagine  how  the  new  primate  of  England  would 
naturally  regard  the  great  patriarch  of  Rome. 

9.     RELATIONS  TO   THE  APOSTOLIC   SEE. 

Not  as  in  any  sense  "  Universal  Bishop  " ;  that 
Gregory  abhorred.  Not  as  having  any  powers  or 
authority  superior  to  his  own  as  a  bishop  ;  that  also 
Gregory  had  expressly  and  vehemently  disclaimed.2 
Yet  the  Church  had  established  certain  great  pa- 
triarchs, among  whom  Gregory  had  a  primacy  of 
honour,  but  no  "supremacy"  of  any  kind.  Beyond 
his  own  limited  patriarchate,  he  might  exert  a 
watchful  care  to  see  that  the  Nicene  and  other 
oecumenical  canons  were  obeyed  ;  he  could  enforce 
them,  however,  only  by  the  action  of  councils, 
1  See  Lecture  III.  §  16,  page  95.  2  See  Note  T". 


1 84       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

each  subject  to  its  own  president,  or  metropolitan, 
and  not  to  him.  In  a  mission  created  by  himself, 
he  seems  to  have,  naturally,  expected  a  degree  of 
deference  growing  out  of  such  circumstances.  All 
this  Augustine  would  justifiably  recognize.  We 
must  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  the  great  patri- 
arch was  invested  in  his  eyes  with  an  exceptional 
importance,  as  succeeding  to  the  apostles  St.  Paul 
and  St.  Peter  in  the  ancient  world-centre.  All  the 
patriarchs  were  called  Papa  by  way  of  eminence, 
and  each  in  his  own  jurisdiction  was  "  the  Papa  "  ; 
just  as  we  call  the  nearest  post-office  "  the  post- 
office,"  or  the  chief  magistrate  of  our  own  city 
"  the  Mayor."  This  by  no  means  implies  that 
there  are  no  other  post-offices  or  mayors ;  and  so, 
when  Augustine  speaks  of  "  the  Apostolic  See," 
he  detracts  nothing  from  Antioch  or  Ephesus ; 
and  when  he  speaks  of  "  the  Pope,"  he  by  no  means 
implies  that  the  other  patriarchs  are  any  less 
"  popes  "  than  Gregory.  Bear  in  mind  that,  as  I 
have  shown,  what  we  understand  by  that  term  was 
not  then  imagined ;  and  not  till  the  close  of  the 
eleventh  century  did  even  a  Roman  pontiff  presume 
to  decree  that  this  title  should  be  peculiar  to  him- 
self. For,  not  bearing  all  this  continually  in  mind, 
the  most  erroneous  impressions  are  derived  from 
books  that  use  such  expressions  unguardedly  in 
the  sense  current  in  the  times  of  their  authors,  as 
now  among  the  vulgar. 

io.     A   DISCOVERY. 

When    Robinson   Crusoe    discovered   a    human 
foot-print  in  the  sand,  his  sensations  were  serious. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       1 85 

When  Augustine  first  learned  that  there  were 
already  Christians  in  Britain  does  not  appear;  but 
his  first  impressions  of  them  were  doubtless  not 
very  favourable.  He  learned  that  they  were  an  un- 
lettered race,  who  still  kept  Easter  by  the  ancient, 
but  now  uncanonical,  uses  of  Smyrna  and  Ephesus. 
For  these  had  been  overruled  at  Nicaea,  by  univer- 
sal consent.  Were  the  Britons  deliberate  schis- 
matics? He  doubtless  imagined  they  were,  but 
this  was  a  mistake.  The  Britons  had  been  so  long 
cut  off  from  commerce  with  other  churches,  that 
they  had  never  received  from  Alexandria  the 
annual  computation.  Gregory  himself  did  not 
know  of  their  existence,  and  it  seems  to  me  prob- 
able, as  I  have  said  before,  that  they  kept  on  in 
the  way  received  by  Irenaeus  from  Polycarp,  and 
which  Eborius  and  his  companions  had  learned 
from  Lyons  and  Aries  to  regard  as  lawful.1  Espe- 
cially would  they  be  likely  to  adhere  to  their  old 
customs,  so  long  as  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria 
failed  to  communicate  with  them,  as  the  canons 
prescribed.  This  was  their  misfortune,  not  their 
fault. 

11.     THE  OTHER    SIDE  OF    THE    CASE. 

Augustine  would  look  at  it  very  differently  :  they 
were  ignorant  barbarians,  at  best,  and  it  was  now 
time  for  them  to  obey  the  canons.  Besides,  though 
he  had  been  expressly  counselled  by  Gregory  not 
to  expect  every  national  church  to  conform  to  the 
Italian  usages,  he  felt  sure,  no  doubt,  that  they  were 
the  best  usages ;  just  as  some  of  us  are  quite  sure 

1  See  supra,  §  4. 


1 86       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

that  the  Mexican  Church  and  Pere  Hyacinthe  in 
Paris  ought  to  accept  every  usage  and  every  rubric 
of  our  "  incomparable  prayer-book."  We  find 
some  disposed  to  withhold  aid  from  the  "  old  Cath- 
olics," because  they  prefer,  in  many  respects,  their 
national  rites  to  ours.  Human  nature  does  not 
change. 

12.     A  CONFERENCE. 

Augustine  obtained  a  conference  with  some  of 
the  British  bishops,  and  it  was  held  under  a  tree 
which  remained  till  comparatively  recent  times,  and 
was  known  as  "  Augustine's  oak."  What  a  meet- 
ing! What  but  Christianity  could  have  afforded 
any  common  ground  for  such  a  conference  !  There 
were  the  aborigines  of  the  soil,  and  here  the  robber 
Saxons ;  there  the  ancient  Church  of  Caradoc  and 
Pudens,  of  Claudia  and  of  St.  Paul's  own  mission- 
aries, and  here  was  a  new-comer,  who  called  him- 
self Bishop  of  the  English,  and  seemed  to  them 
in  league  with  their  old  enemies  against  them.  In 
answer  to  prayer,  Augustine  was  thought  to  have 
wrought  a  miracle,  which  excited  their  fraternal 
respect;  but  they  answered,  with  dignity,  that 
"  they  could  not  depart  from  their  ancient  customs 
without  the  consent  of  their  own  churches." 


13.     AND  ANOTHER. 

At  a  second  conference,  Augustine's  bearing  and 
conduct  were  offensive  to  these  very  primitive  peo- 
ple.   Yet  he  proposed  no  terms  of  union  other  than 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       1 87 

such  as  we  should  approve.  They  were  to  adopt, 
"  not  as  our  custom,  but  as  that  of  the  Universal 
Church,"  certain  compliances  with  the  local  Ro- 
man and  Apostolic  Church,  (1)  in  the  administer- 
ing of  baptism,  and  (2)  in  the  keeping  of  Easter. 
Further,  (3)  they  were  to  act  jointly  with  him  in 
preaching  to  the  English  nation  the  word  of  God. 
They  refused  consent,  chiefly  because  of  his  over- 
bearing manner.  And  here  he  seems  to  have 
forgotten  what  was  due  to  himself  and  them,  for 
he  threatened  them  with  the  divine  displeasure. 
When,  some  ten  years  later,  King  Ethelfrid  with  a 
great  army  fell  upon  them  and  massacred  them  in 
great  numbers,  the  Saxons  looked  upon  this  ter- 
rible event  in  one  way  and  the  Britons  in  a  very 
different  one. 

An  ancient  Welsh  document  relates  that  the 
answer  of  the  British  clergy  was  made  on  one 
occasion  in  the  following  words,  by  Dinoth,  an 
abbot  :  — 

"  The  British  churches  owe  the  deference  of  broth- 
erly kindness  and  charity  to  the  Church  of  God,  to  the 
Roman  Papa,  and  to  all  Christians.  But  other  obedience 
they  do  not  know  to  be  due  to  him  whom  you  call  the 
Papa.  As  for  ourselves,  we  are  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Bishop  of  Caerleon  upon  Uske,  who,  under  God, 
is  our  spiritual  overseer  and  guide." 

Ethelfrid's  vengeance  fell  upon  Chester  in  the 
North,  the  ancient  name  of  which  resembles  that 
of  Caerleon  in  South  Wales.  This  may  have  led 
some  to  imagine  that  the  massacre  was  inspired 
by  Augustine's  threat,  of  which  he  probably  had 


1 88        INSTITUTE'S  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

never  heard ;  but  it  shows  how  intense  was  the 
Saxon  prejudice  of  Bede  himself  against  the  Brit- 
ons, when  this  holy  man  can  see  nothing  in  the 
event  but  a  just  judgment  from  the  Lord.  We 
must  acknowledge  with  grief,  that  a  like  unchari- 
table comment  might  be  made  upon  the  failure  of 
missions  and  bishoprics  which  Augustine  founded. 
There  were  terrible  relapses ;  some  of  the  bishops 
retired  to  France ;  the  old  idolatry  returned  in 
divers  places.  The  Anglican  Church  had  shrunk 
to  the  dimensions  of  the  single  county  of  Kent, 
when  once  again  it  revived,  and  for  a  time  spread 
over  the  northeastern  counties,  under  good  King 
Edwin.  But  again  there  came  a  relapse.  In 
Lincolnshire,  where  a  great  work  seemed  begun, 
the  churches  went  to  decay,  and  so  continued  for 
years.  It  became  manifest  that  Augustine's  work 
must  all  be  done  over  again. 

14.     IONA   AND   ITS    MISSIONS. 

But  for  thirty  years  (A.  D.  633-664)  a  more 
primitive  and  a  more  successful  work  had  been 
carried  on  among  the  Northern  English,  by  Scots 
and  Picts,  the  old  enemy,  now  Christianized  by  the 
zeal  of  Columba  and  his  missions  that  went  forth 
from  Iona.  King  Oswald  restored  the  cathedral  at 
York.  Aidan,  a  saintly  bishop,  fixed  his  mission- 
ary see  at  another  Iona,  Lindisfarne,  on  the  coast 
of  Northumbria,  which  was  long  known  as  the 
Holy  Isle.  This  bishopric  was  afterwards  enlarged, 
and  settled  as  the  see  of  Durham.  Finan,  who 
succeeded    to    Aidan,  recovered  very  much  peo- 


THE    CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       1 89 

pie  to  Christ.  A  bishop  was  set  over  Lichfield, 
and  another  was  restored  to  London.  Nobody 
can  read  the  beautiful  tributes  which  Bcde  pays 
to  the  Northern  bishops,  with  whom  he  differed 
on  so  many  points,  without  the  conviction  that 
to  Iona  and  to  Lindisfarne,  and  to  the  meek  and 
loving  spirit  of  their  missionaries,  the  ultimate 
conversion  of  all  England  is  chiefly  due.  At  one 
time  only  one  bishop  of  the  Latin  rite  was  left  in 
the  island.  And  so  it  came  about  that  this  rite 
was  observed  only  in  Kent  and  a  small  part  of  the 
South,  while  the  converted  North  adhered  to  the 
Gallican  rites,  or  others  of  very  primitive  use, 
brought  into  the  Pictish  churches  from  Ireland. 
To  heal  the  differences  occasioned  by  such  diver- 
sity, a  synod  was  summoned  (A.  D.  664)  at  Whitby, 
in  Yorkshire. 

15.     COUNSELS   OF   UNITY. 

And  very  interesting  and  truly  Christian  in  spirit 
were  the  discussions.  Bede  attributes  the  Easter 
rules  of  the  Northern  Britons  to  the  causes  I  have 
already  instanced,  and  excuses  their  non-conform- 
ity in  this  respect,  acknowledging  their  true  faith 
and  piety  in  the  spirit  of  their  observance  of  rules 
they  had  received  from  primitive  times.  Though 
the  immediate  results  were  not  unanimously 
adopted,  this  synod  unified  the  churches  in  a  good 
degree';  and  soon  after  (a.  d.  667},  such  a  desire 
for  the  settlement  of  affairs  was  reached  that  the 
Northerns  came  to  an  agreement  with  their  Kent- 
ish brethren,  and  elected  Wighart  Archbishop  of 


190       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Canterbury,  desiring  him  to  go  to  Rome  and  re- 
ceive consecration  there.  This  measure  was  very 
wisely  conceived.  The  English  Church  exercised 
its  own  rights  of  election ;  but  the  failure  of  Greg- 
ory's mission  having  become  a  scandal,  it  was  fit- 
ting that  "  the  Pope  of  the  city  of  Rome"  as  Bede 
and  Alcuin  call  him,  should  be  informed  of  the  bet- 
ter state  of  things  now  existing,  —  of  the  growing 
unity  of  the  Church  in  Britain,  and  of  their  desire 
to  be  in  unity  with  the  Apostolic  See.  Unhappily, 
as  we  might  think,  Wighart  died  at  Rome  in  a 
pestilence  before  he  could  receive  consecration; 
and,  very  pardonably  perhaps,  Vitalian,  the  patri- 
arch of  the  city,  resolved  to  find  a  proper  person 
to  be  the  English  metropolitan,  and  send  him  out 
as  his  missionary.  This  was  an  unfortunate  pre- 
cedent, interfering  as  it  did  with  the  elective  fran- 
chise of  the  English  Church,  and  tending  to  impair 
its  autonomy.     But  God  overruled  all  for  good. 

16.     THE  MISSION   OF   THEODORE. 

He  chose  Theodore,  a  native  of  St.  Paul's  own 
city,  Tarsus,  and  consecrated  him  Bishop  on  the 
feast  of  the  Annunciation,  a.  d.  668.  It  was,  per- 
haps, a  concession  to  the  North  British  churches 
to  send  them  an  Eastern  bishop,  who  could  best 
persuade  them  to  adopt  the  Nicene  rules  of  Eas- 
ter. But,  as  a  restraint  upon  him,  and  to  keep  up 
the  Latin  side  of  the  controversies,  Vitalian  gave 
him  a  sort  of  archdeacon  in  Adrian  who  accom- 
panied him.  It  was  in  A.  D.  669  that  he  arrived  in 
England,  to  reconstruct  and  to  "  set  in  order  the 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       191 

things  that  were  wanting."  He  was  cordially  ac- 
cepted, and  became,  in  fact,  the  second  founder  of 
the  Church  of  England.  No  one  of  his  predeces- 
sors is  to  be  compared  with  this  truly  great  and 
holy  man.  Nevertheless,  he  had  marked  faults  and 
infirmities,  and  was  not  always  considerate  in  deal- 
ing with  what,  no  doubt,  he  considered  as  yet  a 
mere  mission  among  a  rude  and  half-Christianized 
people,  "  wellnigh  severed  from  the  whole  world." 

17.     PERILOUS   INNOVATIONS. 

It  has  been  necessary  for  me  to  go  thus  largely 
into  the  character  of  the  Primitive  British  and  the 
Early  English  Churches,  in  order  to  free  later  ques- 
tions from  the  difficulties  with  which  profound  and 
unpardonable  ignorance  has  encumbered  the  mat- 
ter. We  are  now  nearly  at  the  end  of  the  seventh 
century.  The  island  has  been  Christianized  from 
the  Apostles'  times.  Its  ultimate  conversion  and 
the  Anglican  Church,  as  a  unit,  result  not  from 
the  Latin  mission,  but  from  Nicene  churches,  com- 
ing southward  in  their  simplicity  and  purity  from 
Iona  and  Lindisfarne.  During  this  whole  period 
the  churches  have  enjoyed  the  insular  privileges 
secured  by  the  Cypriote  canon  to  all  churches  so 
situated.  The  coming  of  Theodore  was  marked 
by  one  circumstance  which  shows  how  jealous 
were  the  native  churches  of  all  foreign  intrusion. 
Augustine  and  his  successors  had  leaned  too  much 
on  Rome  as  their  natural  base  of  supplies,  and  this 
had  doubtless  increased  their  difficulties.  A  thor- 
ough and  immediate  identification   of  themselves 


192       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

with  the  native  Christians  would  have  worked 
better.  Grace  had  been  given  to  others  to  repair 
the  breach,  and  to  heal  the  old  wounds.  But  The- 
odore's consecration  with  an  implication  that  he 
was  to  be  their  "  metropolitan,"  when  they  had 
elected  Wighart,  and  without  waiting  for  their  ac- 
tion in  the  choice  of  another,  was  an  infraction  of  dis- 
cipline ;  more  especially  as  the  Church  of  England 
had  never  recognized  as  yet  any  metropolitical 
power  whatever  in  the  see  of  Canterbury.  Wilfrid, 
now  Bishop  of  York,  had  proved  this,  by  going  into 
France  to  be  consecrated,  which  would  have  been 
resented  by  the  then  Bishop  of  Canterbury  had  he 
possessed  any  canonical  right  to  consecrate  the 
bishops  of  England.  This  same  Wilfrid  had  seen 
the  importance  of  accepting  the  Easter  usages  en- 
joined by  Nicaea,  and  had  favoured  unity  with  the 
Latins  of  Kent  and  Surrey ;  but  in  the  circumstan- 
ces he  showed,  perhaps,  only  a  proper  self-respect 
by  refusing  attendance  at  Theodore's  synods. 

18.     COMPROMISES. 

However,  by  the  humility  of  St.  Chad,  who  rep- 
resented the  Northern  churches,  things  were  so  far 
harmonized  that  he  became  Bishop  of  Lichfield, 
and  Wilfrid  was  appeased,  so  that  all  things  were 
ready  for  harmonious  action.  A  synod  was  called 
at  Hertford  by  the  authority  of  the  Saxon  princes, 
where  the  old  canons  were  examined  and  local 
canons  passed.  By  these  Theodore  was  virtually 
accepted  as  the  first  Metropolitan  of  the  Church 
of  England ;   according  to  the  canons,  that  is,  and 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       1 93 

not  by  any  authority  of  a  foreign  bishop.  To 
show  Theodore's  own  convictions  on  the  subject, 
in  which  the  churches  and  the  local  princes  sus- 
tained him,  he  refused  all  recognition  of  Agatho, 
Bishop  of  Rome,  when  he  presumed  to  interfere  in 
the  matter  of  a  bishop  deprived  of  his  see.  lie 
did  much  more,  and  in  a  more  important  matter : 
for  whereas  Honorius,  Pope  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
fell  into  the  Monothelite  heresy,  and  was  subse- 
quently condemned  as  a  heretic,1  Theodore  sum- 
moned a  council  (a.  d.  680)  at  Hatfield,  just  at 
the  time  when  the  sixth  and  last  general  council 
was  held  at  Constantinople,  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, in  which  this  heresy  was  condemned.  This 
council  of  Hatfield  marks  a  great  point  in  the 
Anglican  history  ;  for  it  thoroughly  recognized 
the  Nicene  Councils  and  Constitutions,  and  all  the 
councils  oecumenical,  placing  the  united  Church  of 
the  Britons  and  Saxons  on  the  unequivocal  base  of 
Holy  Scripture  and  primitive  antiquity. 


19.     WHAT     ITS     FIRST     ARCHBISHOP     HAD     MADE 
OF  THE   ANGLICAN   CHURCH. 

In  this  happy  estate  Theodore  the  Great,  as  he 
may  justly  be  called,  left  the  Church  of  England, 
when  (a.  d.  690)  he  rested  from  his  labours.  He 
was  nearly  ninety  years  of  age,  and  had  sat  in  his 
see  two-and-twenty  years.  He  founded  schools, 
increased  learning,  and  left  scholars  who  were 
masters  of  the  Latin  tongue  not  only,  but  of  the 
Greek  also,  the  native  tongue  of  Theodore  himself. 

1  See  Lecture  III.  §  27,  page  107. 
13 


194      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

To  such  schools  we  owe  the  precious  life  and 
labours  of  Bede,  and  of  the  great  Alcuin,  of  whom 
we  have  heard  before.  So  stood  the  Church  of 
our  forefathers  at  the  close  of  the  seventh  century. 


20.     THE   VENERABLE   BEDE. 

We  enter  the  new  century  at  the  date  of  Bede's 
ordination  in  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age.  He 
loved  the  Latin  churches  and  the  see  of  Rome,  to 
which  he  felt  that  the  Saxons  owed  their  Christian- 
ity, and  his  fidelity  to  this  sentiment  amounted  in 
him  wellnigh  to  a  passion.  But  it  was  to  the  ca- 
nonical dignity  and  character  of  the  Apostolic  See 
that  he  was  attached.  He  owed  it  no  subscription. 
In  the  year  after  his  ordination  to  the  presbyterate, 
an  English  council  took  occasion  to  declare  that 
"  No  decree  of  English  archbishops  and  bishops 
should  ever  be  altered  by  any  decrees  of  the  Apos- 
tolic See."  This  was  precisely  the  position  of 
Dinoth  and  the  British  bishops  in  their  answer 
to  Augustine.  The  greatest  men  of  this  age,  and 
those  most  attached  to  the  Latin  rites  and  usages, 
reaffirmed  this  position  two  years  later  at  a  con- 
ference in  Yorkshire ;  adding  a  strong  defiance  of 
any  foreign  power  presuming  to  interfere  with 
what  the  synods  of  the  national  Church  had 
decreed. 

21.     FIRST  ENGLISH   MISSIONS. 

Now  went  forth  Winfrid   (or  Boniface)   on  his 
great  mission  to  the  Franks,  and  the  light  of  Eng- 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.        1 95 

land  began  to  illuminate  the  world.  But  many 
things  in  England  itself  began  to  awaken  the  anxi- 
ety of  Bede,  who  reflects  upon  them  with  prudent 
reserve,  and  says,  "  Time  will  show."  Egbert,  the 
patron  of  Alcuin,  was  now  Bishop  of  York,  and 
Bede  complains  to  him  of  the  great  ignorance  of  the 
peasantry,  sending  him  copies  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
and  the  Creed  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  which  he  en- 
treats may  be  used  by  the  clergy  in  teaching  the 
people.  Here  was  in  rudiments  our  own  Catechism 
begun.  And,  indeed,  now  were  the  seeds  of  a 
subsequent  restoration  planted;  for,  in  reproving 
the  corruptions  of  the  monasteries  and  other  evils 
which  afterwards  arose,  he  writes  like  a  reformer. 
He  was  one  of  the  greatest  doctors  of  the  age, 
and  he  met  his  death  on  Ascension  day,  May  25, 
A.  D.  735,  with  his  pen  in  hand,  translating  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John  into  English.  In  the  cathe- 
dral of  Durham  you  may  see  his  tomb  and  his 
epitaph :  — 

"  Hie  jacent  in  fossa 
Bedas  Venerabilis  ossa." 

"  Here  lie  'neath  these  stones 
Bede  the  Venerable's  bones. 

22.    THE   LATER   PERIOD. 

Of  Alcuin  and  his  transcendent  merits  you  have 
been  so  fully  reminded  that  I  add  no  more  about 
him.  Thus  we  reach  the  epoch  which  closes  the 
history  of  the  early  English  period,  at  the  memora- 
ble date  of  Charlemagne,  A.  D.  800.  In  that  same 
year  Egbert  began  his  reign.     He  nominally  was 


196       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

the  first  King  of  England  ;    but  we  may  practically 
reserve  that  title  for  Alfred  the  Great. 

Between  this  date  and  the  Norman  invasion, 
A.  D.  1066,  which  was  the  epoch  of  Hildebrand, 
lies  the  later  English  period,  during  which  England 
itself  began  to  be  created,  in  its  constitutions  and 
laws,  by  the  action  of  the  Church.  The  bishops 
established  the  State,  "  as  bees  make  the  honey- 
comb "  ;  but  the  State  never  established  the  Church 
of  England.  She  was  the  precedent  condition  of 
the  State  itself.  In  the  preceding  age,  Ina,  king  of 
Wessex,  speaks  of  the  nascent  Parliament  as  hav- 
ing concurred,  in  its  three  estates,  in  enacting  the 
laws.  He  enumerates  :  "  My  bishops,  and  all  my 
eldermen,  and  the  eldest  wita?i  of  my  people,  with 
a  great  gathering  of  God's  servants."  Such  was 
the  "  Witenagemot,"  or  assembly  of  the  Wise. 

23.  ALFRED,  THE  HEAD  OF  OUR  RACE. 

Alfred  revised  and  collected  the  laws  of  his  pre- 
decessors, rejecting,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
his  witan,  what  he  could  not  approve,  but  modestly 
inserting  nothing  of  his  own,  because  "  he  could 
not  foresee  what  might  be  good  for  such  as  should 
come  after  him."  The  incursions  of  the  Northmen 
kept  this  great  prince  busy,  all  his  days,  resisting 
their  ravages.  They  made  a  "  dark  age  "  for  Eng- 
land ;  but,  at  all  his  intervals  of  respite,  he  was  not 
less  active  in  his  literary  pursuits,  promoting  learn- 
ing, encouraging  piety  and  study  among  the  clergy, 
and  with  his  own  hands  translating  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  good  books    for  his  people.     He  lived 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       1 97 

through  the  ninth  century,  and  expired  in  the  first 
year  of  the  tenth.  I  have  quoted  a  saying  of 
King  Edgar's  about  this  horrible  century.1  In  his 
reign,  Dunstan  became  Archbishop,  and  brought  in 
many  Italian  monks,  by  whom  the  sorest  evils  were 
soon  inflicted  on  the  Church.  The  ascendency  of 
the  Danes  and  the  reign  of  Canute  deserve  careful 
study;  they  promoted  somewhat,  at  a  dangerous 
period,  the  influence  of  Rome,  where  the  Paparchy 
was  now  growing  to  enormous  proportions,  amid 
not  less  enormous  corruptions.  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor is  revered  as  a  Saxon  saint  and  a  true  Eng- 
lishman ;  but  Earl  Godwin  ruled  the  land,  and  his 
son  Harold  succeeded.  All  things  had  prepared 
the  way  for  a  new  era;  and,  after  a  brief  reign  of 
forty  weeks,  the  battle  of  Hastings  gave  the  realm 
to  William  the  Norman. 

24.     TAKING   OUR    BEARINGS. 

Let  us  see  where  the  Anglican  Church  stood 
on  the  eve  of  its  enslavement  to  an  alien  aggres- 
sion. The  idea  of  a  "  Papacy"  was  familiarized; 
but  it  was  the  indefinite  conception  of  a  great 
Canonical  Patriarchate,  in  the  apostolic  city  of 
Rome,  to  which  filial  deference  was  due.  It  was  a 
Papacy,  but  not  a  Paparchy.  Elsewhere  the  De- 
cretals had  done  their  work  more  effectually,  but 
England  was  Nicene,  and  not  Roman.  It  was  free 
in  spirit,  and,  as  yet,  in  form. 

Observe  that  the  canon  of  Holy  Scripture,  the 
Creeds,  the  Episcopate,  were  identical  with  those 
1  See  Lecture  V.,  page  151. 


198       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

we  have  now.  There  was  no  doctrine  of  Transub- 
stantiation  ;  the  communicant  received  in  both 
kinds ;  there  was  no  forced  confessional.  The 
clergy  were  mostly  married  men.  The  whole 
scholastic  system  of  theology  was  non-existent. 
There  were  gross  superstitions,  but  no  false  dog- 
mas. Avoid  reading  into  these  times  any  ideas 
distinctively  more  modern,  and  bear  always  in 
mind  that  the  Catholic  Church  still  meant  what 
it  means  in  the  Nicene  Constitutions.  It  took  five 
centuries  more  to  produce  such  a  monstrous  con- 
ception as  that  of  "  the  Roman  Catholic  Church," 
—  a  local  church  that  is  claiming  to  be  identical 
with  the  whole  Church  Universal. 


25.    THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  PERIOD. 

The  new  period  is  that  of  the  Anglo-Normans, 
but  it  includes  the  century  of  transition,  which  was 
not  complete  when  the  Angevine  dynasty  came  in. 
We  shall  only  note  the  great  changes  it  created  in 
the  Anglican  Church,  and  the  debasement  of  its 
Nicene  position. 

It  introduced  an  entirely  new  class  of  ideas,  for 
with  French  and  Italian  priests  came  a  Latinizing 
process  which,  by  and  by,  subjected  the  Anglican 
Church  to  the  Roman  pontiff;  never  so,  however, 
as  to  rob  it  of  its  identity  as  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, or  to  absorb  it  into  the  Italian,  or  Ultramon- 
tane, system  of  passive  subjection.  The  terribly 
sincere  Hildebrand  was  now  carrying  the  as- 
sumptions of  the  Decretals  to  their  logical  con- 
sequences,  and  in   him  the  fraudulent  decrees  of 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       1 99 

Nicholas  reached  their  highest  mark.  Gregory  en- 
deavoured to  establish  a  universal  Paparchy.  This 
level  of  culmination  was  maintained  by  the  fero- 
cious Innocent  III.1  (a.  d.  1198),  and  subsequently 
till  we  reach  the  fourteenth  century  under  Boni- 
face VIII.,  the  last  of  those  despotic  pontiffs  who 
successfully  enforced  the  Decretals.  The  reaction 
was  then  begun.  But  it  was  precisely  when  the 
Hildebrandine  epoch  was  successfully  transforming 
the  Latin  churches  into  a  system  of  ecclesiastical 
satrapies,  that  England  was  Normanized.  Hilde- 
brand  sanctioned  the  invasion  of  William.  His 
purpose  and  policy  are  evident.  This  remnant  of 
the  Nicene  Constitutions  must  be  absorbed.  He 
who  forced  Henry,  the  Emperor,  to  kneel  at  his 
gate  amid  the  snows  of  Canossa,  and  whose  new 
position  was  marked  by  an  edict  claiming  the  title 
of  "  Pope "  as  no  longer  to  be  applied  to  other 
patriarchs  or  bishops,  now  proposed  to  subject 
England  to  the  Paparchy. 

26.    THE   NEW  EPISCOPUS  AB  EXTRA. 

I  have  not  called  William  "  the  Conqueror,"  for 
our  forefathers  were  not  conquered  when  Harold 
was  overcome.  It  was  a  duel  between  two  claim- 
ants of  the  English  throne,  neither  of  whom  had  a 
well-defined  right.  But  William  was  the  nominee  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  and  came  in  as  his  regular 
successor,  swearing  to  maintain  the  laws  and  insti- 
tutions of  the  English,  which,  with  all  his  rude  and 
cruel  ideas,  he  did  in  many  respects  quite  effectu- 
1  See  Note  U". 


200       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

ally.  I  do  not  wholly  share  the  feeling  of  those 
who  see  in  him  only  the  brutal  "  Bastard"  and 
despot.  Happily,  he  was  bred  in  the  Gallican 
school  of  ecclesiasticism,  and  had  imbibed  some 
ideas  from  Charlemagne,  as  we  shall  soon  see. 
What  St.  Louis  did  for  France  in  a  later  age, 
William  allowed  the  Church  of  England  to  do, 
promptly  and  vigorously,  at  this  crisis.  In  fact, 
when  Henry  VIII.  was  called  upon  by  the  estates 
of  his  realm  to  "  reassume  "  the  ancient  rights  and 
privileges  of  his  crown,  he  did  little  more  than  re- 
vive the  laws  of  the  Church  and  the  land,  as  they 
were  maintained  at  this  time,  even  under  the  pon- 
tificate of  Hildebrand.  This  will  soon  appear  from 
the  facts  I  shall  note. 

27.     THE   FOREIGN   ARCHBISHOPS. 

During  the  four  Anglo-Norman  reigns,  there 
were  five  Archbishops  of  Canterbury.  The  first 
two  were  Italians ;  the  other  three  were  French- 
men. By  education  and  in  habits  of  life  the  Italian 
primates  were,  of  course,  more  or  less  Norman- 
ized ;  for  Lanfranc  and  Anselm  were  taken  from 
the  monastery  of  Bee.  To  make  way  for  the  for- 
mer, Stigand,  in  heart  a  non-juror,  after  four  years, 
was  deposed.  William  would  not  be  crowned  by 
him,  but  gave  that  honour  to  another.  He  be- 
longed to  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  did  not  fancy 
the  invasion ;  but  he  was  not,  apparently,  what  an 
English  primate  should  have  been  at  such  a  mo- 
ment. It  is  important,  and  very  creditable  to  Wil- 
liam, to  note  that,  besides  Stigand,  only  two  or 
three  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  bishops  were  deprived. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.      201 

28.     THE   GREAT   LANFRANC. 

For  Lanfranc  I  feel  a  tender  and  almost  affec- 
tionate respect.  He  was  a  humble-minded,  but, 
all  the  more,  a  great  bishop.  Born  in  1'avia,  he 
had  been  nurtured  in  Ghibelline  ideas;  he  was 
therefore,  naturally,  of  Hincmar's  school,  and  ac- 
cepted the  traditions  of  Frankfort.  The  Decretals, 
it  is  true,  had  now  during  two  centuries  been  trans- 
forming the  Latin  canons,  and  he  no  more  doubted 
their  authority  than  he  did  that  of  the  Gospels. 
He  was  a  personal  friend  of  Hildebrand,  and  loved 
him.  All  the  more  may  we  wonder  that  he  suc- 
cessfully opposed  that  gigantic  creator  of  pontifi- 
cal despotism,  and  stood  in  the  eleventh  century 
under  William  I.  just  about  where,  in  the  sixteenth, 
we  shall  find  Archbishop  Warham  with  his  con- 
vocation under  Henry  VIII.  Let  us  note  some  of 
the  landmarks  which  Lanfranc  would  not  suffer 
even  Gregory  to  remove. 

29.     OLD   LANDMARKS. 

Hardly  had  William  seated  himself  on  his  throne 
when  Gregory  made  his  first  move  of  aggression. 
W'illiam  was  in  debt  to  him  for  encouraging  his  in- 
vasion, and  he  had  invited  Gregory  to  accept  his  re- 
ward. Consequently  two  Roman  cardinals  appear 
on  the  scene  as  Legates,  and  were  bold  enough  to 
introduce  an  unprecedented  assault  upon  Anglican 
liberties,  summoning  the  bishops  and  clergy  to  a 
council  at  Winchester.  Here  Stigand  was  deposed, 
most  uncanonically.1     However,    Lanfranc  waited 

1  Like  Sancroft,  under  William  III. 


202      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

for  no  bulls  from  Gregory,  but  was  duly  conse- 
crated by  eight  of  his  comprovincials,  thus  per- 
petuating the  ancient  succession.  Nor  did  he  wait 
for  a  pall  from  Rome  to  assume  his  authority  as  a 
metropolitan.  Note,  therefore,  that  even  under 
Hildebrand  no  such  formalities  were  of  any  ac- 
count in  England.  Palls  had  been  sent  since  Au- 
gustine's time,  but  with  no  other  apparent  motive 
than  that  of  patriarchal  recognition.  But  if  Wil- 
liam had  paid  off  Gregory  in  a  matter  which  suited 
his  own  convenience,  when  he  wanted  to  get  rid 
of  Stigand,  he  was  now  inclined  to  show  himself 
an  English  king,  and  to  resist  further  aggression. 
The  papal  legate,  Hubert,  in  the  name  of  the  pon- 
tiff, demanded  two  things,— (i)  the  payment  of 
Peter-pence,  said  to  be  in  arrears,  and  (2)  homage, 
as  from  a  vassal  to  his  suzerain.  William,  per- 
haps, did  not  know  that  Peter-pence,  as  such,  had 
not  been  paid  by  former  kings.  Under  them  the 
tribute  was  paid  for  the  support  of  their  own  Eng- 
lish college  at  Rome.  Nevertheless,  he  was  will- 
ing to  settle  the  cash  account  without  dispute.  As 
to  the  homage,  he  growled  out  a  reply  worthy  of 
the  bluff  Harry  Tudor:  "Homage  to  thee  I  do 
not  choose  to  do ;  I  never  promised  it,  nor  do  I 
find  that  it  was  ever  done  by  my  predecessors  to 
thine." 

30.     AN   ANGLICAN   PRIMATE. 

Gregory  had  relied  on  Lanfranc  to  support  this 
claim,  and  he  now  reproached  his  friend,  as  forget- 
ting the  feelings  he  had  formerly  professed,  of 
devotion  to  him  and  the  Roman  see.     If  William 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.      203 

was  an  English  king,  Lanfranc  now  rose  to  his 
position  as  an  English  primate,  and  replied,  "  I 
am  ready  to  yield  to  your  commands  in  every- 
thing according  to  the  canons."  Here  was  the 
noteworthy  difference  between  the  Papacy,  as  in- 
terpreted by  Gallicans  and  Anglicans,  and  that 
Paparcliy  which  Gregory  was  trying  to  stretch 
over  all  the  churches,  but  of  which  England  as 
yet  knew  nothing.  This  latter  could  not  be,  even 
nominally,  reconciled  with  Nicene  canons.  Lan- 
franc further  said,  that  he  had  advised  William  to 
do  as  the  Pope  desired,  adding,  however,  curtly  and 
tartly,  in  the  true  Anglican  spirit:  "The  reason 
why  he  utterly  rejects  your  proposal  he  has  him- 
self made  known  to  your  legate  orally,  and  to 
yourself  by  letter."  This  was  not  what  the  tamer 
of  kings  and  superiors  could  put  up  with  from  an 
Anglican  primate.  Thank  God,  he  found  in  Lan- 
franc one  who  would  not  go  to  Canossa.  It  is 
most  important  as  a  landmark  to  note  the  pontifi- 
cal assumptions  and  the  Anglican  position  at  this 
juncture.  Thus  then  wrote  Hildebrand  to  Lan- 
franc: "Take  care  to  make  your  appearance  at 
Rome,  within  four  months  from  this  date.  .  .  . 
Thus  may  you  make  amends  for  a  disobedience  we 
have  so  long  overlooked.  If  these  apostolic  man- 
dates are  unheeded,  .  .  .  know  this  for  certain, 
yon  shall  be  severed  from  the  grace  of  St.  Peter, 
and  utterly  stricken  by  his  authority ;  ...  in  other 
words,  you  shall  be  wholly  suspended  from  your 
episcopal  office."  What  happened?  Here  was 
the  Paparchy  (a.  D.  1081),  and  where  was  Angli- 
canism at  that  date?     Dean  Hook  tells  the  whole 


204       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

story  in  a  line:   "The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
did  not  go,  and  Lanfranc  was  not  suspended." 


31.     CYPRIOTE   AUTONOMY. 

In  other  words,  the  Church  of  England  was 
still  a  Nicene  church,  and  stood  upon  the  ancient 
canons.  It  was  just  at  this  time  that  the  Em- 
peror had  called  a  council  at  Brixen,  in  the  Tyrol, 
which,  in  the  spirit  of  Frankfort,  had  deposed 
Gregory  and  elected  an  antipope  calling  him- 
self Clement  III.  Note,  then,  another  proof  that 
neither  the  Church  in  England,  nor  its  primate, 
imagined  that  communion  with  the  Pope  was  re- 
quisite to  Catholic  communion;  for  in  this  great 
matter  Lanfranc  took  no  pains  to  be  in  com- 
munion with  Gregory,  nor  was  he  even  influenced 
by  Gregory's  threat  of  excommunication  "  from 
the  grace  of  Peter  "  to  seek  relief  under  the  rival 
pontiff.  To  foreign  inquiries  upon  the  subject  he 
returned  this  cool  and  truly  English  reply,  as  if 
with  the  Cypriote  canon  in  his  mind :  "  Our  island 
has  not  yet  rejected  Gregory,  but  it  has  not  de- 
cided upon  tendering  obedience  to  Clement:  when 
both  sides  have  been  heard,  we  shall  be  better 
qualified  to  come  to  a  resolution  in  the  case."  He 
speaks  with  calm  indifference,  but  rather  as  an 
umpire  than  as  a  subject.  There  are  abundant 
proofs  that,  even  at  this  date,  the  Anglican  Church 
was  everywhere  recognized  as  maintaining  an  ex- 
ceptional position,  other  than  that  of  the  Latin 
churches  connected  with  "  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire."    Seventeen   years  later,   at  the  Council   of 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.       20 5 

Bari,  A.  D.  1098,  when  Anselm's  spare  and  modest 
figure  was  hidden  from  Urban  II.,  at  a  humble 
distance  from  his  throne,  he  cried  out,  "  Anselm, 
father  and  master,  where  art  thou  ?  "  When  he 
very  meekly  advanced,  the  pontiff  gave  him  a  priv- 
ileged seat,  and  added,  "  We  include  him  indeed 
in  our  cecumene,1  but  as  the  pope  of  another  cecu- 
tnene"  Whatever  meaning  he  may  have  attached 
to  his  almost  prophetic  words,  it  is  evident  that 
he  regarded  him  as  a  patriarch,  and  as  somewhat 
which  others  were  not.  Lanfranc,  I  suppose, 
speaks  of  "  our  island  "  in  that  very  sense :  orbis 
alter,  another  cecumene,  no  part  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

32.     ANGLICAN   LIBERTIES    ASSERTED. 

Under  William  and  this  great  primate  what  were 
called  Gallican  maxims  two  centuries  later  were 
thus  laid  down  as  Anglican  liberties:  —  (1.)  The 
Carolingian  position  of  the  royal  supremacy  was 
maintained ;  the  king,  like  Charles  and  Constan- 
tine,  was  eveqite  an  dcJwrs,  the  principle  afterwards 
restored  under  Warham,  and  less  practically  re- 
affirmed under  Louis  XIV.  just  six  hundred  years 
from  the  times  we  are  now  considering.  Yet  fools 
and  knaves  affirm  perpetually  that  this  was  an  in- 
vention of  Henry  VIII.  (2.)  If  two  or  more  popes 
were  claimants  of  St.  Peter's  throne,  the  right  of 
choosing  his  pope  was  vested  in  the  king.  This 
defeats  all  such  ideas  as  were  formulated  at  Trent, 

1  "  Orbis  "  seems  here  to  have  this  significance.  See  William  of 
Malmesbury  (ed.  Migne),  p.  1493. 


206       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

or  decreed  by  the  late  pontiff.  (3.)  When  the 
true  Pope  had  been  thus  ascertained,  none  of  his 
briefs  or  bulls  were  to  be  published  in  England 
till  approved  by  the  king.  (4.)  No  ecclesiastic,  if 
summoned  to  Rome,  should  be  permitted  to  obey 
without  the  king's  permission.  We  have  seen  by 
Lanfranc's  conduct  that  he  may  have  dictated 
this  safeguard  against  papal  aggression.  (5.)  The 
Church  of  England,  in  council  under  the  primate, 
might  make  no  canons  without  the  royal  consent. 
(6.)  The  Anglican  Church  in  council,  with  such 
consent,  might  regulate  her  own  officers  and  pre- 
scribe her  own  liturgy.  Under  this  ancient  im- 
munity the  "  Use  of  Salisbury  "  was  now  set  forth 
as  a  model,  and  to  this  the  Church  of  England  re- 
verted at  the  Restoration  under  Elizabeth.  Note 
the  essential  identity  of  the  Church  under  Wil- 
liam I.  and  under  the  later  Tudors. 


33.    THE  GREAT   ANSELM. 

Anselm,  who  succeeded  Lanfranc,  was  more  of 
an  Italian,  and,  though  a  great  theologian  and  a 
holy  man,  he  was  a  mischievous  primate.  Nobody 
makes  more  mischief  than  a  saint  at  heart,  who  is 
practically  wrong-headed.  The  new  king  enforced 
the  Anglican  liberties,  but  the  primate  compro- 
mised them  as  far  as  he  could,  though  he  had 
received  his  investiture  from  the  sovereign  in  con- 
tempt of  the  Roman  court.  Moreover,  he  had 
received  his  consecration  from  bishops  not  then  in 
communion  with  the  pontiff,  whom  he  at  the  time, 
and  the  king  afterward,  called  "  the  true    Pope." 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.      207 

In  Anselm  this  is  most  noteworthy.  When,  at  a 
later  date,  he  compromised  himself  in  concessions 
to  the  pontiff,  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  England, 
in  the  true  spirit  of  A.  D.  1530,  declared  that,  rather 
than  concede  the  temporal  supremacy  to  the  Pope, 
they  would  expel  Anselm  and  "  break  off  all  con- 
nection with  the  Roman  see."  1  To  the  Pope  him- 
self the  king  wrote  a  letter,  deprecating  any  as- 
sumption on  his  part  "  which  would  drive  him  to 
the  extreme  measure  of  renouncing  all  intercourse 
with  the  see  of  Rome."  It  is  clear  that  the  Papar- 
chy  had  not  quite  clutched  England  into  its  grip. 
For  this  no  thanks  to  Anselm,  who  induced  William 
Rufus  to  give  up  more  than  was  due,  in  the  matter 
of  investiture,  though  not  by  any  means  all  that 
Rome  claimed.  Still,  when  a  Roman  legate  landed 
at  Dover,  to  exercise  legatine  powers  over  Eng- 
land, arousing  a  universal  outcry  against  such  an 
unheard  of  papal  aggression,  Anselm  maintained 
the  Anglican  liberties,  and  packed  the  legate  off 
to  Calais  in  summary  disgrace. 

34.     INTRUSION   OF   LEGATES. 

After  the  decease  of  this  holy  man,  whose  mis- 
takes were  honest  convictions,  derived  from  his 
training  and  from  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  the 
see  was  kept  vacant  for  five  years,  though  admin- 
istered by  Ralph  d'Escures,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
who  was  then  elected  to  the  primacy,  after  an  ex- 
traordinary contest,  in  A.  D.   11 14.     We  are  now 

1  Anselm  (ed.  Migne),  iv.  4.  p.  203.  See  also  Hook's  Arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury,  vol.  ii.  p.  239. 


208       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

in  the  twelfth  century,  and  this  action  is  most  sig- 
nificant of  contempt  for  the  popedom,  for  which 
two  claimants,  if  not  three,  were  struggling.  The 
Anglican  bishops  would  not  have  another  Anselm  ; 
the  king  enabled  them  to  choose  one  who  was  re- 
solved to  maintain  the  Anglican  liberties.  Soon 
after,  he  asserted  his  prerogative,  and  recognized 
Calixtus  II.,  a  Frenchman,  who  proved  as  treach- 
erous to  England  as  any  Italian  could  have  been. 
Ralph  lived  to  crown  the  next  Norman  king,  and 
William  of  Corbeuil  succeeded  to  the  primacy.  A 
contemporary  says,  "  Of  his  merits  nothing  can  be 
said,  for  he  had  none."  The  state  of  Europe  was 
frightful :  Pope  and  Antipope,  between  whom  all 
Europe  was  under  an  anathema,  were  now  liter- 
ally in  arms,  and  one  of  them  in  person  was  con- 
tending as  a  soldier.  Then  came  a  melancholy 
concession.  The  new  archbishop  permitted  him- 
self to  be  appointed  the  papal  legate  over  England 
and  Scotland,  for  he  was  weak  enough  not  to  see 
that,  while  this  seemed  to  place  him  under  no  Iega- 
tine  superior,  it  was  placing  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  new  relations  to  the  Papacy.  He  crowned 
Stephen,  and  was  soon  after  succeeded  by  Theo- 
bald, the  third  Abbot  of  Bee,  who  had  been  called 
to  the  English  primacy.  This  primate  also  ac- 
cepted a  legatine  position,  thus  letting  into  Eng- 
land the  Paparchy  by  the  thin  end  of  a  wedge  that 
was  destined  to  be  driven  deeper  and  deeper  by 
sledge-hammers.  In  the  next  reign  we  shall  see 
the  consequences.  The  next  legate,  as  might  have 
been  foreseen,  was  not  the  primate. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS.      20Q 

35.     WHERE   WE   STAND. 

Our  period  includes  the  reign  of  the  first  Plan- 
tagenet,  when  the  Decretalist  system  became  dom- 
inant in  England  under  the  new  code  of  Gratian. 
The  reign  of  Stephen  had  been  inglorious,  but  he 
sustained  the  principle  of  his  predecessors,  when 
he  refused  to  permit  his  bishops  to  leave  the  king- 
dom on  the  summons  of  Eugenius  III.  to  his  coun- 
cil at  Rheims.  Theobald  disobeyed  him,  and  was 
punished  ;  but,  good  man  though  he  was,  he  shows 
what  peril  there  is  in  trusting  great  and  sacred  in- 
terests to  pious  imbecility.  The  Anglo-Norman 
dynasty  ends  in  an  ignominious  surrender  of  princi- 
ples which  were  soon  found  to  have  subjected  it  to 
all  the  fraudulent  impositions  of  Nicholas.  These 
were  just  now  framed  into  the  canon  law  by  Gra- 
tian, and  what  were  claims  before  were  henceforth 
canons,  overriding  all  that  Anglicans  had  known 
by  that  name.  The  landmarks,  however,  had  been 
providentially  set  up,  and  the  Anglican  liberties 
were  recognized  by  Pope  Paschal  himself,  when 
(a.d.  1 1 18)  he  complained  to  the  bishops  and 
clergy  of  England  of  their  independent  spirit  in  the 
following  words :  "  Without  advising  us,  you  de- 
termine all  ecclesiastical  affairs  within  yourselves ; 
call  councils  by  your  own  authority;  without  our 
consent  give  sees  to  bishops  by  translation,  and 
suffer  no  appeals  to  be  made  to  us."  Yes,  precisely 
so,  thank  God  !  And  so  stood  the  Anglican  Church 
in  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  all 
this  she  regained  in  the  sixteenth;  which  proves 
that  the  Paparchy  held  its  usurped  sway  over  the 

u 


210       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Church  of  England  only  for  four  hundred  years, 
more  or  less,  —  years  in  which  it  was  never  undis- 
puted nor  even  unambiguously  received.  Leave 
out  these  four  centuries,  and  we  have  fourteen  of 
Nicene  freedom,  and,  in  good  degree,  of  Nicene 
truth  and  purity.  Which,  then,  is  the  church  of 
our  forefathers,  and  which  the  old  religion? 


LECTURE    VII. 

THE    ELEMENTS  OF   RESTORATION. 

i.    THE  TRANSITION  YET  INCOMPLETE. 

OUT  of  Lake  Leman  comes  the  "  arrowy- 
Rhone,"  beautiful  as  light  from  the  clear 
blue  sky.  You  may  have  stood  on  the  little 
promontory  where  the  Arve  issues  forth  to  meet 
it,  —  a  red  torrent  from  the  Alps,  once  the  crys- 
tal of  melted  snows  but  now  arrayed  like  a  papal 
legate.  How  the  purer  river  writhes  and  refuses  to 
be  tainted  !  how  the  red  ruffian  presses  and  pushes 
it  to  the  wall !  Still  the  Rhone  keeps  up  the 
contest  as  best  he  may.  For  a  time  he  holds  his 
own,  but,  alas !  the  red  wins,  and  the  sapphire  dis- 
appears. What  is  visible  to  the  common  eye  is  no 
longer  the  blue  Rhone,  but  only  the  blood-coloured 
Arve.  Is  the  nobler  river  lost?  By  no  means.  It 
becomes  the  Rhone  again,  and  rolls  on  superbly, 
through  the  broad  lands  where  Irenaeus  planted 
the  Gospel,  under  the  walls  of  Lyons  and  Aries, 
and  so  to  the  sea.  Behold  a  parable,  that  illus- 
trates the  Nicene  Church  in  England,  in  her  origi- 
nal glory  and  in  her  restored  identity. 

We  have  not  yet  reached  the  point  where  the 
stream  runs  red,  precisely.  To  drop  the  figure, 
we  must  give  a  full  century  to  the  mischief  done 


212       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

by  the  Norman  primate  who  became  a  nominal 
"  legate,"  and  so  let  in  the  foreign  element.1  As 
yet  the  struggle  is  kept  up.  The  Normans  are 
pushing  the  English  aside,  and  they  give  way  little 
by  little.     Here  comes  the  first  Plantagenet. 

2.    THE  PLANTAGENETS. 

But  it  was  still  the  Normans  under  another 
name.  When  Henry  II.  has  reigned  twelve  years, 
the  Norman  century  is  complete,  and  so  is  the 
Transition  Period.  Its  landmark  is  found  in  the 
date  of  the  "  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  " ;  not 
their  acceptance  in  A.  D.  1163,  but  their  arrogant 
rejection  in  behalf  of  the  Papacy  two  years  later. 
Let  us  see  how  things  stand,  just  here. 

The  moment  of  Henry's  accession  is  marked  by 
an  event  till  then  without  example,  and  never  du- 
plicated since.  An  Englishman  is  made  Pope,  — 
Nicholas  Breakspear  his  honest  Saxon  name,  but 
he  is  known  as  Adrian  IV.  Such  an  event  was 
enough  to  turn  the  head  of  every  ambitious  priest 
in  England.  What  might  not  happen  next?  The 
son  of  a  London  merchant,  who  had  mingled  his 
blood  with  that  of  a  Saracen  wife  in  the  veins  of  his 
boy,  proved  just  the  character  to  be  fired  by  such  an 
event.  The  lad  was  sent  to  Italy  for  his  education, 
where  he  had  for  his  tutor  that  Gratian  who  com- 
pounded the  Decretals  with  the  Canon  Law.  This 
remarkable  youth  had  become  the  Primate  of  all 
England  when  he  subscribed  the  Constitutions; 
but  in  two  years  he  not  only  recanted,  but  excom- 

1  Supra,  page  208. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTOKA  TION.         2  1 3 

municated  everybody  that  maintained  them.  But 
England  did  not  recant.  The  Constitutions  were 
destined  to  grow  with  her  growth,  and  strengthen 
with  her  strength.  There  was  in  them  a  principle 
of  life;  they  proved  that  native  liberties  died  hard, 
—  nay,  were  not  doomed  to  die.  The  Constitutions 
were  not  pillars  of  the  Church,  but  they  were  but- 
tresses, and  shored  up  her  holy  walls  from  outside. 
In  the  conflicts  that  followed,  we  cannot  wholly 
sympathize  with  either  party.  Henry  had  pre- 
scribed the  Constitutions,  because  they  strength- 
ened his  powers  to  control  the  Church,  under  col- 
our of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  constitutions.  Becket 
resisted  his  encroachments  on  the  Anglican  lib- 
erties ;  and  so  far,  so  good.  But  he  did  so  to 
transfer  us,  hand  and  foot,  to  the  Papacy,  which 
was  now  a  Paparchy  also,  wherever  the  new  Canon 
Law  was  received.  Such  was  the  crisis,  and  thus 
the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  become  a  land- 
mark of  vast  significance.  Feeble  in  themselves, 
they  yet  embodied  the  free  principles  of  Frankfort 
and  of  Alcuin,  capable  though  they  were  of  abuse 
under  a  bad  king.  Enough,  Becket  detested  them. 
With  papal  approval,  he  mounted  the  pulpit  on 
Whit-Sunday  at  Vezelay,  in  France,  and  with  dra- 
matic pomp  pronounced  his  anathemas.  He  read 
the  Constitutions,  and  excommunicated  the  King's 
ministry  who  had  framed  them.  The  bells  were 
rung  backward,  crosses  turned  upside  down,  and 
torches  extinguished.  King  Henry  was  called 
upon  to  repent,  or  to  expect  a  like  anathema  upon 
his  own  head. 


214       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

3.     THE   SUBMISSION. 

The  Hildebrandine  policy  had  triumphed,  and 
the  Anglican  Church  was  under  the  Paparchy.  No 
need  to  follow  out  the  tragedy  of  the  personal  con- 
flict between  prince  and  primate.  Every  school- 
boy knows  how  Henry  at  last  compassed  the  murder 
of  Becket,  and  with  what  heroic  fortitude  he  fell. 
Our  pictured  primers  of  history  made  even  child- 
hood familiar  with  the  penitent  Henry,  prostrate 
at  Becket's  tomb,  and  flogged  on  his  bare  back 
by  grinning  monks  and  acolytes.  No  doubt  he 
deserved  it,  and  possibly  kings  were  not  made  any 
worse  by  finding  that  there  was  a  power  on  earth 
that  could  "lay  their  honour  in  the  dust"  Hence 
the  fallacy  that  enables  a  certain  class  of  writers  to 
eulogize  the  Popes.  They  miss  the  point.  The 
horse,  to  be  revenged  on  the  stag,  in  ^Esop,  was 
delighted  to  call  in  a  man  and  to  submit  to  the 
saddle,  while  the  man  punished  his  enemy.  This 
done,  the  horse  was  greatly  obliged  to  his  rider, 
and  wished  him  farewell.  But  no,  he  was  saddled 
for  life,  and  stalled  besides,  a  slave  to  his  deliverer. 
So,  at  this  period,  whoever  called  in  the  Pope  to 
punish  a  tyrant  soon  found  that  he  had  a  rider 
on  his  back  whose  little  finger  was  heavier  than  a 
prince's  loins. 

Before  this  long  reign  came  to  a  close,  one  inci- 
dent is  a  token  of  vitality.  The  primate  Baldwin 
was  arrogantly  overruled  by  the  pontiff,  so  sudden 
was  his  assumption  of  power  over  the  metropol- 
itan. The  good  primate  took  no  notice  of  the 
aggression,  but  legates  were  sent  from  Rome  with 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         21$ 

mandates,  inhibitions,  and  excommunications.  The 
parochial  clergy  rose  to  uphold  their  primate,  and 
fearlessly  proclaimed  to  their  flocks  that  such  a 
sentence  from  foreign  parts  had  no  force  in  Eng- 
land. Yet  the  yoke  of  the  Decretals  was  upon  her. 
Not  by  any  action  of  hers,  not  by  any  definition 
of  pontifical  powers  or  rights,  but  passively,  she 
became  as  the  strong  ass  of  Issachar,  "  couching 
down  between  two  burdens," —  the  burden  of  the 
Norman  invaders  and  the  far  heavier  pack  of  the 
papal  usurpation. 

4.    TWO   FORCES. 

Henceforth  we  have  two  organized  forces  in 
conflict,  more  or  less,  without  rest,  for  four  cen- 
turies. I  cannot  affect  neutrality  in  such  a  quarrel. 
When,  in  all  the  light  of  what  followed,  I  find  the 
foreign  usurpation  uniformly  labouring  to  destroy 
the  Nicene  Constitutions,  the  ancient  liberties  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  the  purity  of  the  Holy  Gospels, 
and  the  dearest  rights  of  humanity  in  the  household 
and  in  the  state,  I  take  my  stand  without  a  doubt 
as  to  the  right.  These  conflicts  are  my  conflicts. 
My  forefathers  fought  them  out  in  my  behalf.  In 
the  long  struggles  of  the  Anglican  Church  I  read  the 
history  of  our  own  Church,  and  my  spiritual  and  in- 
tellectual origin.  I  am  identified  with  past  genera- 
tions, and  with  all  who  frame  their  thought.  Here 
are  my  own  antecedents.  If  I  had  lived  in  those 
times,  I  should  have  been  involved  in  all  the  diffi- 
culties of  my  sires.  I  should  have  shared  their 
ignorance,  their   honest   credulity,    their   enslave- 


2 1 6      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

ment  to  the  Decretals,  their  gross  superstitions. 
How  should  I  have  acted  ?  Where  should  I  have 
been  found  ?     Thanks  to  God,  I  lived  not  then. 

5.    THREE   CLASSES   INVOLVED. 

Here  comes  in  room  for  humility,  charity,  and 
large  consideration.  I  see  three  classes  of  char- 
acters:  (1)  honest,  faithful  men,  no  wiser  than 
their  age,  doing  their  best  in  the  gross  darkness, 
and  feeling  after  light;  (2)  men,  apparently  bad, 
and  working  for  worldly  ends  to  make  night  darker 
and  bad  worse ;  and  (3)  elect  spirits,  called  of  God 
to  be  witnesses  for  Him,  according  to  their  ability, 
and  to  work  out  deliverance  for  his  people.  Here, 
then,  I  must  "judge  righteous  judgment,"  or  "  judge 
nothing  before  the  time."  I  must  hesitate  to  con- 
demn my  brother  man ;  but  I  must  not  restrain 
my  sympathy  with  all  that  has  contributed  to  my 
precious  inheritance  of  light  and  freedom,  and  all 
spiritual  riches  in  Christ  and  His  Gospel.  I  hate 
lies;  I  hate  power  based  upon  imposture;  I  hate 
the  corrosions  and  corruptions  which  divested  the 
Latin  churches  of  their  Nicene  character  and  their 
ancient  liberties.  This  is  the  spirit  which  inspires 
me  to  speak,  and  in  sympathy  with  which  I  ask 
you  to  trace  the  Anglican  Restoration  to  its  sources, 
and  to  follow  me  thence  till  it  is  crowned,  by  the 
marked  providence  of  God,  not  merely  with  suc- 
cess, but  with  such  developments  of  strength  and 
of  fruitfulness  as  have  made  our  restored  estate  a 
blessing  to  mankind. 


THE   ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.        21 7 

6.     INNOCENT   III. 

After  the  Lion-hearted  Richard  comes  the  great 
crisis  of  the  West.  Lothaire  had  just  mounted  the 
papal  throne  as  Innocent  III.  By  him  what  Nich- 
olas created  and  Hildebrand's  credulity  developed 
with  logical  force  into  Titanic  proportions  was 
rendered  yet  more  practical,  and  was  augmented 
by  theological  decrees  more  corrosive  than  had 
yet  been  imagined.  Provincial  canons  were  ele- 
vated into  dogmas  of  the  faith ;  subtleties  of  Aris- 
totle, coloured  by  Averroes,  were  made  the  base 
of  his  new  theology.  Even  Gregory  VII.  had  not 
accepted  transubstantiation,  but  now  it  was  to  be 
identified  with  worship  and  enforced  as  doctrine. 
Worse  than  all  as  an  instrument  of  papal  despot- 
ism came  the  torture  of  confession,  no  longer  volun- 
tary, but  bound  upon  conscience  by  penalties  of 
excommunication  and  the  refusal  of  Christian  burial. 
The  "  ear  of  Dionysius  "  was  appropriated  by  a 
Christian  pontiff,  and  he  proclaimed  it  to  be  the  ear 
of  Him  "  to  whom  all  hearts  are  open,  and  from 
whom  no  secrets  are  hid."  Kings  and  queens, 
princes  and  peasants,  must  obey.  Every  soul  in 
Western  Christendom  was  now  brought  into  per- 
sonal relations  with  the  power  to  which  the  Decre- 
tals had  led  them  to  believe  all  power  was  given. 
The  keys  of  life  and  death,  of  heaven  and  hell, 
were  in  his  hand ;  he  could  dispense  the  divine  re- 
wards and  chastisements  with  arbitrary  sovereignty. 
Western  Europe  was  thus  reduced  to  one  great 
parish,  in  which  he  alone  was  rector ;  all  bishops 
and  priests  were  but  his  curates ;   he  was  universal 


2l8       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

bishop  and  lord  paramount  over  the  souls  and  bod- 
ies of  men.  To  fulminate  cruel  excommunications 
and  to  lay  national  churches  under  interdict  was 
his  pastime.  He  assumed  all  the  responsibility  for 
devastating  whole  races  when  he  turned  the  cru- 
sades against  Christians,  and  devoured  by  fire  and 
sword  the  unhappy  Vaudois  and  Albigenscs.1  Un- 
der an  imbecile  and  unprincipled  king,  England 
was  now  to  share  in  the  blessings  of  such  "  another 
gospel." 

7.     THE   EBB   OF   THE   NORMANS. 

But  one  happy  event  gave  things  a  better  cast 
for  the  future.  Normandy  fell  to  the  French 
kings  ;  troops  of  Normans  went  to  look  after  their 
estates  and  this  foreign  influence  began  to  wane. 
I  remember  well  when  Hanover,  by  the  operation 
of  the  Salic  law,  fell  away  from  the  English  sover- 
eign by  the  death  of  William  the  Fourth.  The  crown 
of  Hanover  was  borne  in  pomp  at  his  funeral,  and 
then  the  wicked  Duke  of  Cumberland  carried  it 
with  him  to  his  petty  dominion.  It  was  the  symbol 
of  departing  Hanoverianism,  that  nightmare  of  our 
Church.  When  Charles  I.  packed  off  "  his  Moun- 
seers,"  —  the  French  priests  who  had  tormented  his 
life  by  meddling  with  everything  in  his  house,  from 
the  scullery  to  his  queen's  bed-chamber,  —  he  closed 
his  despatch  with  the  words,  "  And  so  the  Devil  go 
with  them."  I  cannot  adopt  such  language  in  the 
imperative  mood ;  but  indicatively,  I  think  much 
evil  went  with  the  Normans,  though,  as  they  left 
1  See  Note  V". 


THE   ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.        2IO, 

King  John,  there  was  sure  to  be  no  particular  need 
of  any  other  personal  attention  to  mischief-making. 
By  strong  reaction,  the  Anglican  spirit  revived  ;  and 
what  Shakespeare  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  King 
to  illustrate  his  lucid  intervals,  began  to  be  indeed 
the  rising  spirit  of  the  Church  and  people.  To  the 
papal  legate,  he  is  made  to  say:  — 

"  Thou  canst  not,  Cardinal,  devise  a  name 
So  slight,  unworthy,  and  ridiculous 
To  charge  me  to  an  answer,  as  the  Pope. 
Tell  him  this  tale  ;  and  from  the  mouth  of  England 
Add  thus  much  more,  —  that  no  Italian  priest 
Shall  tithe  or  toll  in  our  dominions.  .  .  . 
Though  you  and  all  the  kings  of  Christendom 
Are  led  so  grossly  by  this  meddling  priest, 
Dreading  the  curse  that  money  may  buy  out, 
And  by  the  merit  of  vile  gold,  dross,  dust,  .  .  . 
Purchase  corrupted  pardon  of  a  man, 
Who  in  that  sale  sells  pardon  from  himself, 
Yet  I  alone,  alone  do  me  oppose 
Against  the  Pope,  and  count  his  friends  my  foes." 

Shakespeare  makes  no  mistake  in  putting  this 
ambiguously  into  the  mouth  of  "  England,"  at  the 
crisis  which,  in  spite  of  the  Pope  and  the  King  to- 
gether, gave  us  the  Magna  CJiarta. 

8.     ARCHBISHOP   LANGTON. 

The  best  thing  Innocent  ever  did  was  done  by 
mistake ;  for  he  made  Stephen  Langton  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  To  do  this  he  set  aside  all 
laws,  human  and  divine,  annulling  the  King's  ap- 
pointment and  the  election  at  Canterbury;  so  that 
this  best  gift  to  the  Church  of  England  came  by  one 
of  his  worst  acts  of  iniquity.     He  had  known  Lang- 


220      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

ton  in  Paris,  where  they  were  youths  together,  and 
hoped  his  old  friend  would  prove  the  tool  of  his 
further  aggressions.  In  this,  happily,  he  was  mis- 
taken. However,  for  a  time  the  mischief  makes 
head.  John  would  not  accept  Langton,  and  the 
whole  kingdom  wakes  up  to  a  sense  of  its  enslave- 
ment, when  it  finds  itself  subjected  to  a  papal  in- 
terdict. "As  for  sermons,"  says  the  witty  Fuller, 
"  laziness  and  ignorance  had  long  before  interdicted 
them ;  but  now  no  prayers,  no  mass,  no  singing  of 
service."  Millions  of  simple  souls  were  thus  made 
to  suffer  loss  of  all  the  means  of  grace ;  no  church 
bells  rung,  church  doors  were  shut:  no  sacra- 
ments could  be  ministered  save  in  special  cases  to 
the  dying ;  none  could  be  married ;  none  could 
have  Christian  burial.  Corpses  were  thrown  into 
ditches  without  prayers,  nor  could  Langton's  inter- 
cession for  his  people  prevail  with  the  pontiff  to 
have  service  once  a  week  in  parish  churches.  Even 
"  the  tender  mercies  of  the  wicked  are  cruel,"  but 
here  was  the  sole  shepherd  of  Christ's  sheep  on 
earth  far  more  cruel  than  they.  The  King  had 
offended  him :  he  takes  from  a  whole  unoffending 
people  the  means  of  salvation.  For  a  whole  year 
this  reign  of  terror  went  on.  The  English  nation, 
panic-stricken,  began  to  feel  where  they  were,  and 
"from  what  height  fallen."  But  Innocent  had 
lately  excommunicated  the  Roman  Emperor,  and 
now  he  absolved  all  subjects  from  allegiance  to 
King  John,  excommunicated  him  by  name,  and 
gave  to  any  invader,  with  absolution  from  all  his 
sins,  a  license  to  conquer  England  and  make  it  a 
dependency  of  some   foreign   crown.     Five  years 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         221 

such  a  state  of  things  continued,  when  the  scenes 
so  wonderfully  dramatized  by  Shakespeare  became 
history.  He  had  received  his  crown  on  the  Feast 
of  the  Ascension  ;  and  now  a  hermit  of  Yorkshire 
broached  the  terrible  prophecy, 

".  .  .in  rude  harsh-sounding  rhymes, 
That,  ere  the  next  Ascension  day  at  noon, 
His  highness  should  deliver  up  his  crown." 

9.     ENGLAND   A   FIEF   OF   ROME. 

Anselm  had  opened  the  door  to  the  next  step, 
and  Pandulph  appears  on  the  scene,  —  an  Italian 
legate,  as  the  consequence  of  an  English  one.  On 
Ascension  day,  King  John  on  his  knees  resigns 
his  crown  into  the  hands  of  the  legate,  "  granting 
to  God  and  the  Church  of  Rome,  the  Apostles 
Peter  and  Paul,  and  to  Pope  Innocent  III.  and  his 
successors,  the  whole  kingdom  of  England  and 
Ireland."  For  five  whole  days  Innocent  was  sole 
king  of  England,  Pandulph  holding  the  crown  for 
him.  Then,  in  consideration  of  immense  prom- 
ises of  tribute,  John  received  it  back,  to  be  held 
by  him,  but  only  as  the  Pope's  vassal.  This  was 
enough.  The  spirit  of  the  early  English  revived. 
The  barons  demanded  of  John  a  restoration  of 
Edward  the  Confessor's  laws,  and  the  liberties  of 
Church  and  State  which  he  had  sworn  to  observe. 
But  when  he  had  promised  to  do  better,  he  refused 
of  course  to  keep  his  promise.  This  just  suited 
Innocent,  and  so  the  Pope  took  his  vassal  under  his 
protection,  and  sent  another  legate,  who  with  bell, 
book,   and    candle   excommunicated    the  nobility 


222        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

not  only,  but  the  primate  himself.  He  was  with 
them,  and  in  fact  at  their  head.  The  interdict  had 
been  removed ;  but  curses  and  excommunications 
were  the  blessings  which  Rome  still  showered  on 
the  land. 

io.     MAGNA   CHARTA. 

It  is  amid  these  scenes,  and  under  the  worst 
of  princes  and  the  most  cruel  of  popes,  that  lib- 
erty begins  to  reappear.  Stephen  Langton  drafts 
Magna  Charta,  and  its  first  sentence  reads  thus: 
"  The  Church  of  England  shall  be  free."  Mark 
that,  —  "  the  Church  of  England,"  her  identity  not 
forfeited.  Her  ancient  liberties  are  reaffirmed,  and, 
with  other  immortal  principles  of  right,  the  pri- 
mate and  the  barons,  at  Runnymede,  in  sight  of 
Windsor  Castle,  force  the  wretched  King  to  accept 
and  confirm  them.  Of  course  he  complies,  and  of 
course  he  retracts.  The  Pope  sustains  his  vassal, 
and  annuls  the  Great  Charter.  Just  so ;  but,  all 
the  more,  it  lives ;  it  grows  and  strengthens ;  it 
makes  terra  firma  for  the  English  Constitution  to 
this  day ;  the  eventual  rejection  of  the  Paparchy  is 
involved  in  it,  and  we  in  America,  under  the  com- 
mon law  and  our  own  constitutions,  are  the  inher- 
itors of  its  blessings. 

ii.     HENRY   THE   THIRD. 

Henry  III.  accepted  his  crown  under  conditions 
made  by  John,  somewhat  modified  indeed,  but 
with  promise  of  tribute.  But  he  afterwards  con- 
firmed Magna  Charta,  and  Stephen  Langton  made 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         22$ 

him  keep  his  promise  for  a  time.  He  tries  to 
evade  his  pledges,  but  over  and  over  again  he  is 
brought  to  book.  He  invites  a  legate  into  Eng- 
land to  "  reform  the  Church  " ;  that  is,  to  make 
it  more  subservient  to  the  pontiffs.  Groans  and 
grumblings  are  heard,  and  the  legate  withdraws. 
From  this  reign  we  receive  that  sturdy  expression 
of  attachment  to  "  the  common  law,"  as  we  now 
call  it,  Nolumiis  leges  Anglicemutari.  So  spoke  our 
forefathers  to  King  and  Pope  alike.  Even  Henry 
remonstrates  against  papal  exactions ;  but  when 
the  threats  of  the  pontiff  extort  eleven  thousand 
marks  from  the  clergy,  his  avarice  is  satisfied  for 
a  season.  Langton  dies,  but  the  great  Bishop 
Grossetete  survives  to  perpetuate  his  spirit.  He 
exposes  the  fact,  that  foreign  priests  sent  into  Eng- 
lish benefices  by  the  Pope  gorge  themselves  with 
church  revenues  more  than  three  times  as  great  as 
those  of  the  Crown. 

The  Plantagenets  produced  two  or  three  of  the 
worst  kings  that  England  ever  knew;  but  the 
others  were  all  great  in  their  several  ways,  and 
the  dynasty,  as  such,  has  bequeathed  inestimable 
blessings  to  our  race.  Under  the  feeble  kings, 
the  people  grew  strong;  the  nobler  Plantagenets, 
for  one  reason  or  another,  worked  with  the  people 
in  a  long,  determined  resistance  to  the  Paparchy. 
Thus,  with  momentary  intermissions,  was  kept 
alive  a  continuons  assertion  of  the  ancient  liberties, 
summed  up  in  the  first  sentence  of  the  charter,  — 
"  Ecclesia  Anglic  ana  libera  sit." 


224 


INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 


12.     TWO   EDWARDS. 


In  Edward  the  First  we  come  back  to  the  name 
of  the  Confessor,  so  dear  to  Anglo-Saxons,  as  one 
of  themselves.     And  Edward  himself,  with  all  his 
Angevine  faults,  reflects  in  some  particulars  the 
spirit  of  his   people.     He   is  inclined   to  be  more 
than  half  an  Englishman.     In  subduing  Wales  and 
humbling  Scotland,  he  is  not  merely  wielding  the 
hammer  of  the  despotic  aggressor,  but  is  making 
England  out  of   Saxons  and   Britons,  welding  all 
into    unity,    and,    as    the    remote    effect,    creating 
Great  Britain.     In   his   day   the    Paparchy   passes 
into    the    "privy    paw"    of    Boniface    VIII.,    who 
"  came   in  like  a  fox,  ruled  like  a  lion,   and  died 
like  a  dog."     His  was  the  memorable  bull  Unam 
Sanctam,  which   defined   as  "  necessary  to    salva- 
tion  that  every    human    soul    should    be    subject 
to  the  Pope  of  Rome," — of  which  more  by  and 
by.    He   was    hateful  to  the   French  king,  whose 
creature,  Clement  V.,   consigned   his    memory  to 
infamy,  and  strove  to  abolish  his  very  name.     The 
Lord  took  the  affair  into  his  own  hand,  and  there- 
after the  power  of  the  pontiffs  began  to  decline. 
Boniface  had  found  Edward  too  stout  for  him  even 
in  his  pitch  of  pride.     When  he  claimed  Scotland 
as  his  own  fief,  and  ordered  Edward  to  sink  his 
claims  and  withdraw  his  troops,  the  heroic  sover- 
eign disdained  his  pretensions.      More  than  that, 
Edward's  Statute  of  Mortmain,  limiting  the  accu- 
mulation of  property  by  the  "  dead-hand"  of  cor- 
porations, was  perhaps  the  first  practical  retaliatory 
blow  that  the  Paparchy  felt  from  England.     His 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         225 

poor  son  was  sent  to  Wales  to  be  born,  and  be- 
came the  first  Prince  of  Wales  by  this  cunning 
stratagem  :  for  Edward  had  promised  the  Welsh  a 
"  faultless  prince,  and  a  native  of  their  own  soil." 
See  the  portraits  of  father  and  son  in  the  match- 
less "  Bard  "  of  the  poet  Gray,  which  every  student 
of  English  history  should  learn  by  heart:  — 

"  Mark  the  year  and  mark  the  night 
When  Severn  shall  re-echo  with  affright 
The  shrieks  of  death,  through  Berkeley's  roof  that  ring, 
Shrieks  of  an  agonizing  king." 

Such  the  end  of  the  second  Edward's  ignominy. 
His  reign  is  marked,  however,  by  the  rise  of  a 
brilliant  star  in  the  horizon  of  darkness,  for  now 
was  born  John  Wiclif. 

13.     THE   THIRD  EDWARD. 

Of  the  papal  usurpation  says  quaint  old  Thomas 
Fuller,1  "It  went  forward  until  the  Statute  of  Mort- 
main. It  went  backward  slowly  when  the  Statute 
of  Provisors  was  made  under  Edward  III. ;  swiftly 
when  his  Statute  of  Prczmnnire  was  made.  It  fell 
down  when  the  Papacy  was  abolished,  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII."  Thus  he  refers  to  the  times  of 
the  third  Edward  two  of  the  great  moves  which 
were  fatal  to  the  Paparchy.  The  stout  Tudor 
could  have  done  nothing  without  them :  so  that 
the  Reformation  did  not  actually  begin  when  he  fell 
in  love  with  Anne  Boleyn.2 

1  Quoting,  "  Habent  imperia  suos  terminos,  hue  cum  venerint, 
sistunt,  retrocedunt,  ruunt."  —  Vol.  ii.  p.  296. 
2  See  Note  W". 

IS 


226       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Grossetete  —  but  as  the  Normans  have  gone 
home,  we  will  now  talk  English,  and  call  him  by 
his  honest  Saxon  name  of  Greathead  —  was  a 
century  before  his  time  when  he  exposed  the  enor- 
mous abuse  of  Papal  "  Provisions."  By  this  arti- 
fice, the  Pope  provided  for  his  favourites,  Italians 
or  Frenchmen,  and  named  them  for  bishoprics  and 
the  like  before  they  fell  vacant.  As  soon  as  the  in- 
cumbent died,  in  marched  the  intruder  and  claimed 
the  place  for  its  revenues,  neglecting  souls  and 
corrupting  the  clergy  by  bad  example.  Great- 
head  protested,  and  strove  to  reassert  Anglican 
principles  of  autonomy.  He  thus  maintained  the 
principle,  and  what  could  not  be  done  then  was 
practicable  now.  To  the  blow  against  Mortmain 
came  next  the  staunch  Anglo-Saxon  thrust  at  the 
foreign  usurper,  called  the  "  Statute  of  Provisors." 
Three  years  later  came  the  Praemunire,  forbid- 
ding appeals  to  Rome  under  heavy  penalties.  In 
temporalities,  the  Reformation  was  begun  already. 
From  an  eminent  English  jurist 1  I  quote  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  The  nation  entertained  violent  antipathies  against  the 
papal  power.  The  Parliament  pretended  that  the  usurpa- 
tions of  the  Pope  were  the  causes  of  all  the  plagues,  injuries, 
famine,  and  poverty  of  the  realm,  were  more  destructive  to 
it  than  all  the  wars,  and  were  the  reason  why  it  contained 
not  a  third  of  the  inhabitants  and  commodities  which 
it  formerly  possessed ;  that  the  taxes  levied  by  him  ex- 
ceeded five  times  those  which  were  paid  to  the  King ; 
that  everything  was  venal  in  that  sinful  city  of  Rome. 
.  .  .  The  King  was  even  petitioned  by  Parliament  to 
1  Stevens,  editor  of  De  Lolme. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         227 

employ  no  churchman  (i.  e.  no  ecclesiastic)  in  any  of- 
fice of  state,  and  they  threatened  to  repel  by  force  the 
papal  authority,  which  they  could  not,  nor  would,  any 
longer  endure." 

The  clergy  had  been  largely  involved  in  the  pa- 
pal invasions,  and  under  kings  who  favoured  them 
often  sided  with  the  pontiffs.  So  it  had  been 
under  the  former  Edwards.  Just  now  the  com- 
mons were  incensed  against  the  Pope,  and  the  King 
courted  his  favour  to  balance  himself  against  the 
rising  spirit  of  popular  independence.  We  must 
note  all  these  things  if  we  would  understand  how 
thoroughly  the  progress  of  Reformation  in  Eng- 
land was  original  with  England  ;  how  it  began  and 
was  making  headway  nearly  two  centuries  before 
Martin  Luther  was  heard  of.  In  temporals,  as  I 
said,  the  work  was  begun  already.  Now  let  us 
observe  its  spiritual  history. 

14.     SPIRITUAL  PROGRESS. 

I  have  called  Alcuin  the  last  of  the  Fathers, 
and  Anselm  the  forerunner  of  the  Schoolmen.  I 
have  traced  Scholasticism  to  Abelard  and  Arnold 
of  Brescia,  and  another  side  of  it  to  Peter  Lombard. 
I  know  too  little  about  him  to  speak  of  Erigena, 
whom  Alfred  invited  into  England  so  long  before 
their  day;  and  I  am  equally  unable  to  express 
an  opinion  of  Albertus  Magnus,  to  whom  some 
assign  the  chief  glory  after  them.  This  premised, 
I  must  add,  that,  for  its  good  and  for  its  evil,  Eng- 
land must  bear  the  palm  and  share  the  blame. 
"  In  England    and    by  Englishmen,"   says  an  old 


228      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Latin  writer,1  "  the  scholastic  theology  had  its  ori- 
gin, made  its  progress,  and  reached  its  zenith." 
Alexander  Hales  (a.  d.  1244)  writes  his  "Body  of 
School  Divinity  "  at  the  command  of  Innocent  IV. 
Aquinas  and  Bonaventure  were  his  disciples.  To 
him  succeeds  the  illustrious  Roger  Bacon,  phi- 
losopher, naturalist,  and  divine,  whose  foresight  of 
chemistry  and  other  sciences  made  him  a  magi- 
cian in  the  eyes  of  his  fellow  Franciscans.  The 
Pope  shut  him  up  in  prison.  John  Duns  Scotus 
comes  next:  truly  an  imperial  genius,  belied  by 
his  name  in  two  ways,  for  Scotus  means  an  Irish- 
man, and  Duns  means  that  he  was  no  dunce.  He 
was  born  at  a  place  so  called,  and  his  great  wis- 
dom and  learning  led  men  to  call  a  fool  ironi- 
cally a  "Duns,"  —  that  is  to  say,  a  Duns  in  his 
own  conceit.  The  Thomists  and  the  Scotists  be- 
came two  schools  after  his  day.  Baconthorpe  is 
to  be  noted  (a.  d.  1346),  because  he  maintained 
at  Rome,  in  spite  of  derision  and  insult,  the  great 
principle  that  was  long  after  to  reach  its  practical 
application  in  England,2  that  "  the  Pope  has  no 
right  to  give  dispensations  for  marriages  unlawful 
in  Scripture."  Here  rises  up  the  bold  figure  of 
William  Occam,3  who  defended  the  Emperor 
against  the  Pope,  saying,  "  Protect  me  with  thy 
sword,  and  I  will  defend  thee  with  my  words." 
All  that  was  needed  by  the  Crown  of  England  to 
protect  itself  two  centuries  later,  when  the  Papar- 
chy  was  expelled,  is  laid  down  by  this  great  divine. 
The  armory  of  the  Anglican  Restoration  was  be- 

1  Alex.  Minutianus.     See  Fuller,  ii.  250. 

2  See  Note  X".  3  A.  D.  1327. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         2  29 

coming  formidable  to  Rome  already.  But,  last  of 
all,  let  me  name  the  holy  Bradwardine,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  in  whom  Alcuin  seems  to  revive, 
and  Bede  the  Venerable  as  well.  If  Pelagius  was 
of  British  origin,  now  in  this  great  man  ample 
amends  were  made  by  the  later  Church  of  Britain  ; 
for  he  not  only  maintained  the  doctrines  of  grace 
against  the  Semi-Pelagianism  that  Rome  has  more 
recently  made  into  dogma,  but  his  life  was  an 
illustration  of  divine  grace  from  first  to  last.  He 
was  the  mediaeval  glory  of  the  Anglican  primacy, 
and  was  called  the  Doctor  Profundus,  from  his 
great  learning  and  deep  thinking.  Chaucer,  forty 
years  later,  ranks  him  with  Boethius  and  with  St. 
Augustine. 

15.     OXFORD  MEN. 

All  these  were  Oxford  men,  and  all  of  that  old 
Merton  College  which  every  visitor  beholds  with 
reverence  as  he  walks  in  Christ-Church  meadows. 
But  it  is  important  to  note  how  boldly  and  freely 
they  disputed  on  points  which  Rome  itself  had 
not  yet  presumed  to  crystallize  into  her  enormous 
"  Code  of  Belief,"  the  product  of  her  Trent  Coun- 
cil. Thus  Scotus  founded  the  Realist,  and  Occam 
the  Nominalist  school  ;  both  were  Franciscans. 
But  after  the  great  Dominican,  Aquinas,  who  was 
a  liberal  Realist,  we  ordinarily  find  the  Domini- 
cans of  that  persuasion.  I  only  note,  in  passing, 
how  the  position  which  Alcuin  gave  to  the  An- 
glican Church  was  maintained  by  great  Anglicans 
even  in  these  ages.  Note  also  how  strongly  the 
influence  of  English  Schoolmen  was  exerted  for  a 


230       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

better  future.  Occam  seems  to  have  foreseen  it; 
he  says  of  his  works,  "  By  means  of  our  preludes 
men  of  future  times,  zealous  for  truth,  righteous- 
ness, and  the  common  weal,  may  have  their  atten- 
tion drawn  to  many  truths  upon  these  matters, 
which,  at  the  present  day,  remain  hidden  from 
rulers,  councillors,  and  teachers,  to  the  common 
loss." 

16.     GREATHEAD. 

Observe  the  continuity  of  spiritual  and  truly  An- 
glican life  in  the  Church  of  England.  In  such 
an  age  as  that  of  Henry  III.  and  Innocent  IV., 
see  Greathead  contending  alike  against  prince  and 
pontiff,  not  as  a  proud  ecclesiastic  like  Becket,  but 
as  a  spiritually-minded  lover  of  souls,  and  of  Christ, 
their  Saviour.  He  might  even  better  have  been 
named  Greatheart.  Poet,  man  of  letters,  intrepid 
pastor,  and  defender  of  the  faith,  —  conceding  a  Gal- 
lican  primacy,  but  resisting  pontifical  supremacy, 
—  he  is  the  very  ideal  of  a  Catholic,  as  far  as  in 
his  day  it  was  possible  to  be.  Books  were  rare ; 
learning  was  fettered ;  the  canon  law  was  based 
on  fables  which  none  could  confute.  But  there  he 
stood,  a  figure  monumental.  Bulls  from  Rome  fell 
harmless  at  his  feet.  The  University  of  Oxford 
bore  witness  concerning  him,  after  he  began  to 
be  called  St.  Robert:  "  Never  for  the  fear  of  any 
man  had  he  forborne  to  do  any  good  action  which 
pertained  to  his  office  and  duty.  If  the  sword 
had  been  unsheathed  against  him,  he  stood  pre- 
pared to  die  the  death  of  a  martyr."  To  such  a 
man,  standing  up  for  truth  and  right  while  pon- 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         23  I 

tiffs  were  "  making  havoc  of  the  Church,"  and 
while  kings  were  surrendering  England  in  vassalage 
to  their  remorseless  grip,  how  much  we  owe  under 
God.  Truly,  what  the  Lord  said  of  old  of  "  Jona- 
dab  the  son  of  Rechab,"  he  seems  to  have  said  for 
the  Church  of  England :  "  She  shall  not  want  a 
man  to  stand  before  me  forever." 

17.    WICLIF. 

We  come  to  Wiclif.  He  was  the  first  mover  for 
Restoration  in  England,  who,  as  Occam  had  proph- 
esied, saw  something  of  the  length  and  breadth  of 
its  meaning.  To  him  we  owe  it,  under  God,  that 
the  Anglican  Church  took  care  of  herself,  as  a  con- 
tinuous church,  in  continuous  reforms,  and  made 
no  sudden  break  even  with  Rome.  To  him,  the 
Continent  owes  its  "  Reformation,"  so  called ;  for  it 
began  with  his  pupils,  and  was  only  directed  into 
the  ditch  of  divisions  and  of  failure  by  the  per- 
verted genius  of  its  great  but  wrangling  doctors. 
Of  this  by  and  by  ;  but  I  wish  you  to  observe  that 
nothing  can  be  more  the  reverse  of  truth  than  to 
begin  the  Reformation  with  Luther,  and  to  import 
it  into  England,  as  if  England  borrowed  her  work 
from  his,  or  modelled  it  after  any  man's  ideas,  or 
after  any  other  standard  than  "  Holy  Scripture  and 
ancient  authors." 

18.     THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Now  (A.  D.  1362)  the  Norman-French  ceases 
in  the  law  courts.  Two  of  the  greatest  men  of 
genius  that  England  ever  knew  took  up  the  Eng- 


232       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

lish  in  its  elements  just  here,  and  made  it  into  lan- 
guage. Chaucer  created  its  poetry,  and  Wiclif  its 
prose.  Well  has  it  been  noted  that  in  its  very  origin 
it  was  devoted  to  the  Restoration,  and  identified 
with  its  spirit.  Chaucer  in  the  court,  Wiclif  in  the 
university,  and  honest  Piers  Plowman  from  among 
the  people,  consecrated  its  earliest  syllables  to  the 
revival  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church ;  and  when 
Wiclif  had  given  to  our  race  the  first  English 
Bible,  he  had  laid  the  corner-stone  of  all  that  has 
since  given  us  the  lead  in  Christendom.  Blessed 
be  God  for  this  baptism  of  the  English  tongue. 
From  its  beginnings  it  is  wedded  to  Truth  ;  and  it 
remains,  of  all  the  languages  on  earth,  the  hardest 
to  yoke  with  the  tug-team  of  Falsehood,  the  most 
incapable  of  being  forged  to  falsehood  or  welded 
with  a  lasting  lie. 


19.     THE  POPES  OF  AVIGNON. 

Go  back  to  Boniface  VIII. ,  and  his  decree  that 
"it  is  necessary  to  every  human  soul  to  be  in  com- 
munion with  the  Bishop  of  Rome."  This  discovery 
was  not  made  dogmatic  by  Rome  itself  till  he  for- 
mulated it,1  and  immediately  the  bolt  fell.  God 
reduced  it  to  the  absurd  instantly,  by  making  it 
for  nearly  a  century  impossible  for  anybody  to 
know  who  or  where  the  Bishop  of  Rome  might  be. 
He  raised  up  Philip  the  Fair,  king  of  France,  to 
force  the  Popes  out  of  Rome  into  his  kingdom. 
Philip  burned  one  of  the  bulls  of  Boniface,  refused 
to  recognize  him  as  Pope,  and  influenced  Benedict, 
1  A.  D.  1294. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.  233 

his  successor,  to  reverse  many  of  his  decisions.  It 
is  hard,  therefore,  to  see  how  this  can  be  reconciled 
with  any  belief  in  the  infallibility  of  either  pope. 
For  nearly  seventy  years  we  have  rival  popes,  one 
at  Rome  and  another  at  Avignon,  and  nobody 
knows,  to  this  day,  which  was  the  true  pope  and 
which  the  pretender.  The  captivity  of  Avignon 
ended  in  A.  D.  1377.  But  things  grew  worse  again 
instantly ;  for  now  intervenes  what  is  called  the 
"  Great  Schism  "  of  the  Papacy,  extending  from 
Urban  VI.,  A.D.  1378,  to  Nicholas  V.,  A.  D.  1447. 
An  assortment  of  popes  and  antipopes  thus  di- 
vide the  allegiance  of  the  Western  churches  for 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  well-nigh.  When 
poor  Joan  of  Arc  was  asked,  as  a  test  of  her  or- 
thodoxy and  her  inspiration,  to  say  which  was 
the  true  pope,  "  What !  "  she  answered,  "  is  there 
more  than  one?"  The  innocent  peasant  heroine 
did  not  even  know  her  peril.  According  to  Boni- 
face and  Pius  IX.,  the  millions  who  knew  not  where 
to  find  the  infallible  judge  of  controversies,  and 
made  mistakes  in  all  that  period,  are  inevitably 
damned.  But  what  is  a  "judge  of  controversies" 
worth,  when,  in  a  controversy  so  vital  to  human 
souls,  nobody  knows  where  to  find  him?  In  view 
of  this  dilemma,  John  Wiclif  made  up  his  mind 
that  it  was  not  the  will  of  Christ  that  "every 
soul  should  be  in  communion  with  the  Bishop 
of  Rome." 

20.     WICLIF'S   ANTECEDENTS. 

Reflect   who    and   what   this  heroic   spirit  was. 
The  successor  of  the  Schoolmen  in  Merton  Col- 


234       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

lege,  and  the  glory  of  the  University,  he  knew  all 
the  scholastics  could  teach  him,  and  much  more 
besides.  He  was  a  natural  philosopher  and  a  can- 
onist. Few  knew  any  Greek  till  the  next  century, 
but  he  was  an  expert  in  the  Latin  Fathers.  In  a.d. 
1374  he  is  a  doctor  of  theology,  and  about  fifty 
years  of  age.  He  had  been  already  honoured  in 
the  University  in  other  ways.  It  seems  probable 
he  had  been  a  member  of  Parliament,  and  sustained 
the  remonstrances  of  the  barons  and  others  against 
the  Papacy.  As  an  ardent  patriot,  he  resisted  the 
papal  nuncio  in  A.D.  1372,  when  he  came  to  bleed 
the  land  and  the  Church  of  England  for  his  master. 
In  1374  he  is  sent  on  a  diplomatic  embassy  to 
Bruges,  with  Sudbury,  Bishop  of  London,  and 
with  — 

"  Old  John  of  Gaunt,  time-honoured  Lancaster." 

Thus  VViclif  became  a  personal  friend  of  a  prince 
of  the  blood,  and  found  him  a  useful  protector. 

21.     THE   GOOD   PARLIAMENT. 

In  the  King's  jubilee  year  (a.  D.  1376),  met  "  the 
Good  Parliament."  Just  four  hundred  years  later, 
Washington  founded  a  nation ;  but  we  may  be 
sure  no  such  character  as  Washington  could  have 
sprung  up,  worthy  of  Alfred  and  carrying  out  his 
institutions  in  a  new  world,  had  there  not  been  a 
John  Wiclif  to  make  the  Parliament  "  Good  "  by 
his  genius  and  by  his  personal  presence.  At  this 
moment  he  was  the  pride  of  his  countrymen  and 
in  the  zenith  of  his  influence.  He  soon  made  ene- 
mies, because    he    undertook  the   great  work  for 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         235 

which  God  had  raised  him  up.  Less  popular  he 
became,  no  doubt;  but  vastly  more  mighty  with 
his  age,  and  useful  to  his  country  not  only,  but  to 
the  human  race. 

22.     THE   FIRST   CITATION. 

Wiclif  was  made  rector  of  Lutterworth  by  gift 
of  the  King  in  A.  D.  1374.  When  the  Parliament 
of  A.  D.  1377  was  opened,  we  find  him  summoned 
before  Courtenay,  Bishop  of  London,  at  St.  Paul's. 
Accordingly  there  he  stands,  like  another  prophet, 
tall  and  spare,  in  a  black  gown  and  girded  about 
his  loins.  Portraits  represent  Alcuin  in  just  such 
a  costume.  He  wears  a  full  beard,  but  his  fine 
forehead  and  features  are  enlivened  by  his  clear 
and  searching  eye.  He  is  supposed  to  have  borne 
a  staff  in  his  hand.  The  Duke  of  Lancaster  ap- 
peared with  him,  and  certain  friars  who  were 
bachelors  of  divinity.  He  was  politely  offered  a 
seat,  but  the  Bishop  of  London  insisted  that  he 
must  stand.  Old  John  of  Gaunt  fired  up,  and  had 
so  sharp  a  quarrel  with  Courtenay  that  the  session 
was  adjourned  before  Wiclif  had  uttered  a  word. 
The  Lord  stood  by  him  and  comforted  him,  no 
doubt;  but  he  could  only  look  on  in  mute  aston- 
ishment, equally  ashamed  of  his  bishop  and  of  his 
fiery  protector,  who  had  not  done  him  any  good. 

23.    THE   SECOND   CITATION. 

Wiclif  was  sustained  by  his  University,  when 
Sudbury,  his  old  colleague  at  Bruges,  now  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  was  called  upon  by  the  Pope 


236       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

to  proceed  against  him.  Bulls  came  thick  and  fast 
from  Gregory  XL,  complaining  that  the  Anglican 
bishops  were  lukewarm.  The  Pope  complained  of 
Wiclif  and  the  evils  of  his  teaching,  and  added: 
"  So  far  as  we  know,  not  a  single  effort  has  been 
made  to  extirpate  them.  .  .  .  You  English  prelates, 
who  ought  to  be  defenders  of  the  faith,  have  winked 
at  them."  He  was  equally  polite  in  his  complaint 
to  the  University,  and  he  invoked  the  King  to  bestir 
himself.  The  Mendicants  had  drawn  up  nineteen 
propositions  from  his  voluminous  writings,  which 
they  made  "  exceeding  sinful,"  by  their  way  of  put- 
ting it.  Long  afterward  the  Jesuits  made  out  one 
hundred  and  one  heretical  propositions  from  the 
harmless  pages  of  the  pious  Jansenists  ;  and  just  so 
any  malignant  spirit  could  extract  from  Massillon 
himself  nineteen  propositions  to  prove  that  he  was 
the  author  of  the  French  Revolution.  Here  let  me 
say,  once  for  all,  that  Wiclif  was  as  little  responsi- 
ble for  the  Lollards  as  Massillon  1  is  for  the  Jaco- 
bins. Their  founder,  Peter  Lolhard,  suffered  death 
at  Cologne  two  years  before  Wiclif  was  born.  It 
would  be  nearly  as  just  to  attribute  the  Chartists 
of  1848  to  the  influence  of  Canon  Kingsley. 

24.     LAMBETH. 

The  University  resisted  the  bulls,  and  complained 
of  their  violation  of  the  constitution.  When  Sud- 
bury mildly  replied,  that  he  refused  to  lay  violent 
hands  on  their  doctor,  and  merely  proposed  to  in- 
stitute an  inquiry,  they  acquiesced,  and  consented 
1  See  Note  Y". 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         237 

to  co-operate.  The  offender,  though  not  as  a  pris- 
oner, was  cited  before  the  primate  at  Lambeth. 
He  obeyed,  and  one  can  see  him  as  he  stands  in 
that  venerable  chapel,  where  our  first  American 
bishops  knelt  to  be  consecrated  four  hundred  years 
later.  Well  do  I  know  the  spot,  for  I  was  lodged 
within  a  few  feet  of  it  at  the  last  Lambeth  confer- 
ence, and  daily  went  in  and  out  to  worship  there. 
This  solemn  history  (and  oh  how  much  beside!) 
often  rose  before  me  in  the  dead  of  night,  as  I  lay 
awake  in  what  is  called  "  the  Lollard's  Tower." 
All  London  was  on  his  side,  and  anon  the  crowd 
clamoured  about  the  doors,  when,  to  the  unspeak- 
able relief  of  Sudbury,  came  a  rescript  from  the 
Queen  Mother,  the  widow  of  the  idolized  Black 
Prince,  for  a  stay  of  proceedings.  The  primate, 
with  a  gentle  admonition  advising  him  not  to  do 
so  again,  allowed  the  doctor  to  go  back  to  Lutter- 
worth. He  is  said  to  have  helped  this  result  by 
modifying  some  of  his  expressions.  This  may 
have  been  a  mere  modifying  of  what  the  friars  had 
charged.  If  he  did  more,  it  only  proves  what  I 
have  often  insisted  upon  in  behalf  of  the  other 
party,  and  what  may  be  urged  in  behalf  of  the 
good  Sudbury  himself,  and  of  all  earnest  writers, 
in  times  of  great  movements,  viz. :  They  hardly 
know  where  they  stand  themselves,  between  prac- 
tical duty  and  theoretical  views  of  truth. 

25.     THE   FRIARS. 

When  the  great  endowed  orders  became  grossly 
corrupted,  the  Friars   originated,    with   the    good 


238       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

purpose  of  imitating  the  poverty  of  Christ  and 
reviving  religion  among  the  people.  Great  was 
the  good  they  seemed  to  do,  when  first  they  came 
into  England.  The  Popes,  who  had  no  taste  for 
poverty,  or  for  primitive  preaching,  became  their 
enemies,  and  the  pious  Bradwardine  had  to  defend 
them.  He  bears  his  unanswerable  testimony  to 
their  zeal  and  fidelity  to  the  souls  of  the  masses. 
The  parochial  clergy  had  neglected  their  duty,  and 
every  Franciscan  was  a  sort  of  Wesley,  doing  what 
others  had  failed  to  do.  But  this  soon  passed 
away.  The  friars  came  into  England  exempted 
from  all  control  of  its  bishops,  and  able  to  defy 
the  parish  priests.  The  new  system  of  confessions 
threw  immense  gain  into  their  hands.  Even  great 
men  were  glad  to  confess  to  strolling  mendicants, 
who  passed  by  and  could  not  daily  stare  them  in 
the  face.  Hence  the  intense  hatred  between  the 
friars  and  the  rectors,  whose  canonical  functions 
they  usurped.  In  the  end,  the  Popes  used  the  fri- 
ars for  their  own  purposes,  and  the  rectors  became 
more  decidedly  anti-papal.  Chaucer  takes  their 
part  you  remember.  His  portrait  of  the  "  Par- 
doner" is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  word-pic- 
tures in  all  poesy.  His  hair,  yellow  and  hanging 
smooth  like  "  a  strike  of  flax,"  overspreading  his 
shoulders  ;  his  voice  small  as  any  goat's ;  no  beard  ; 
his  wallet  brim-full  of  pardons,  "  from  Rome  all 
hot."  He  had  a  bit  of  Our  Lady's  veil,  and  a  rag 
of  the  sail  of  St.  Peter's  boat,  — 

"  And  in  a  glass  he  had  a  pigges  bones. 
And  with  these  reliques,  when  that  he  fand 
A  poor  person  dwelling  upon  land, 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         239 

He  gat  him  more  money  in  a  day 
Than  that  the  parson  got  in  months  twaie. 
Well  could  he  read  a  lesson  or  a  story, 
But  all  the  best  he  sang  an  offertory, 
To  win  silver,  as  right  well  he  could." 

When  you  visit  England,  look  at  the  gurgoyles 
and  crockets  on  the  walls  and  towers  of  the  old 
churches.  If  it  is  a  parish  church,  you  will  see, 
perhaps,  a  friar  caricatured  in  stone  as  a  "  wolf  in 
sheep's  clothing "  ;  if  it  is  an  old  chapel  of  the 
Minorites,  you  will  find  the  compliment  returned 
by  a  grotesque  carving  of  a  rector,  with  ears  of  an 
ass,  pretending  to  preach,  while  he  can  only  bray. 

26.     WICLIF'S   DEATH   AND   CHARACTER. 

Wiclif  has  been  charged  with  beginning  his  re- 
forms by  attacking  the  friars.  The  reverse  is  the 
case,  and  we  can  only  account  for  it  because,  as 
identified  with  the  parochial  clergy,  or  meaning  to 
be  so,  he  was  wise  enough  not  to  take  up  a  quarrel 
which  had  become  so  degraded.  Nevertheless,  as 
time  went  on,  he  was  forced  to  expose  the  Mendi- 
cants, and  they  were  his  envenomed  assailants.  A 
third  time  Wiclif  was  cited  before  his  superiors  to 
answer  for  himself,  and  on  this  occasion  at  the 
Chapel  of  the  Black  Friars,  which  has  been  gratu- 
itously imagined  a  special  token  that  his  judges 
took  their  part.  Again,  however,  our  hero  was 
preserved  from  harm ;  again  he  took  his  staff  and 
trudged  back  to  Lutterworth,  to  go  on  with  his 
translation  of  the  Scriptures.  This  great  work 
appeared  in  1382.  In  1384,  as  he  was  devoutly 
worshipping  in  his  parish    church,   on   Innocents' 


240       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

day,  and  just  as  the  consecrated  host  was  ele- 
vated, he  fell  in  a  paralysis.  On  the  last  day  of 
that  year  his  spirit  returned  to  God  who  gave  it. 
Let  the  great  poet,  who  knew  him  well,  bear  his 
testimony  to  so  great  a  benefactor  of  mankind,  in 
his  inimitable  portrait  of  a  good  priest,  in  the  days 
of  Edward  III.  and  Richard,  the  last  Plantagenet. 
I  must  slightly  modernize  it  to  make  it  intelligible. 

"A  good  man  was  ther  of  religioun, 
And  was  a  poor  Parson  of  a  town, 
But  riche  he  was  of  holy  thought  and  werk ; 
He  also  was  a  learned  man,  a  clerk 
That  Christ  his  gospel  gladly  would  he  preach ; 
His  parishens  devoutly  would  he  teach. 
Benign  he  was  and  wondrous  diligent, 
And  in  adversity  full  patient. 
He  could  in  little  thing  have  suffisance." 

In  short,  he  gave  of  that  little  to  the  poor,  he 
visited  his  people  through  sleet  and  storm ;  in 
sickness  hasted  to  the  farthest  habitation ;  early 
and  late  upon  his  feet,  staff  in  hand,  he  showed  by 
his  conduct  how  sheep  should  live,  and  it  was  his 
saying,  "  If  gold  rust,  what  will  iron  do?  If  the 
shepherd  be  foul,  how  shall  the  sheep  be  clean?" 
"  A  better  priest  there  is  none  anywhere." 

"  Thus  Christ  his  lore,  and  his  apostles  twelve, 
He  taught,  —  and  first  he  followed  it  himself." 

Chaucer  knew  the  man,  and  draws  him  to  the  life ; 
but  one  loves  to  believe  that  thus,  in  the  darkest 
period  of  our  dear  mother  Church,  there  were  not 
a  few  good  shepherds  of  the  flock  of  Christ.  It  is 
also  a  tribute  to  others  of  the  parochial  clergy  of 
the  time. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         24 1 

27.     AN  ESTIMATE  OF  WICLIF'S   WORK. 

In  estimating  this  great  doctor's  work,  let  us 
first  observe  what  he  did  not  do.  He  raised  no 
sect ;  he  set  up  no  school ;  he  obeyed  his  bishop's 
citations ;  he  turned  his  court  influence  into  no 
private  source  of  profit;  he  lived  and  died  the 
faithful  parish  priest.  Nay,  he  departed  not  from 
the  law  as  it  then  stood  in  England,  and,  while  he 
denied  the  corporal  presence,  —  I  might  say  be- 
cause he  had  so  modified  its  significance,  —  carried 
out  conformity  to  the  letter  of  the  law  in  the  cere- 
mony of  uplifting  the  Eucharistic  Body  and  Blood. 
In  all  this,  his  testimony  to  restoration,  not  recon- 
struction, as  his  principle,  is  invaluable.  He  was 
no  hot-headed  iconoclast;  he  was  doing  God's 
work,  as  God  gave  him  light,  and  he  waited  God's 
guidance  as  to  what  next.  So  by  slow  degrees, 
patiently,  and  as  by  one  who  cleanses  a  golden 
vase  that  has  been  defiled  and  bruised  and  daubed 
with  vulgar  colours,  the  Anglican  Restoration  went 
on  from  strength  to  strength. 

28.    MISTAKES. 

Next,  as  to  his  mistakes  and  errors.  I  grant  he 
made  many,  as  who  does  not?  How  could  it  have 
been  otherwise,  emerging  from  such  darkness, 
stunned  by  many  voices,  confused  by  the  quarrels 
and  divisions  of  Schoolmen,  without  any  help  such 
as  our  day  affords,  and  in  the  very  nature  of  his 
task  forced  to  review  his  impressions,  revise  his 
work,  and  to  change,  from  time  to  time,  his  original 

16 


242       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

conclusions?  Let  us  reflect  on  the  divisions  of 
theologians  at  Constance  and  Basle,  and,  above  all, 
at  Trent,  when  books  had  been  already  multiplied 
by  the  press.  Nay,  go  back  to  Augustine  himself, 
to  Jerome,  to  Tertullian,  to  Origen.  Who  shall 
cast  the  first  stone?  Who  is  perfect?  Was  not  St. 
Peter  himself  withstood  by  St.  Paul,  "  because  he 
was  to  be  blamed"?  How  could  so  immensely 
voluminous  a  writer,  whose  works  came  forth 
during  a  long  life  and  in  a  period  of  transition 
of  unexampled  agitations,  —  how  could  he  fail  to 
have  written  many  things  which  he  himself,  at  the 
end  of  life,  could  not  approve?  Two  things  let  us 
note:  (i)  some  of  his  worst  mistakes  came  from 
St.  Jerome,  St.  Augustine,  and  from  Aquinas 
himself;  and  (2)  among  his  contemporaries  who 
was  so  free  as  Wiclif  from  all  that  runs  counter  to 
the  rule  of  Vincent  and  the  Holy  Scriptures?  He 
no  doubt  regarded  the  Episcopate  as  an  eccle- 
siastical rather  than  an  apostolic  institution.  So 
taught  the  Schoolmen,  to  depress  the  bishops  and 
exalt  the  Popes.  Calvin  himself  learned  Presby- 
terianism  from  Aquinas ;  for,  stern  logician  that 
he  was,  he  inferred  that,  if  bishops  were  only  the 
Pope's  vicars,  and  not  Christ's,  they  must  go  with 
the  Pope.  When  he  taught  that  presbyters  are 
the  highest  order  of  divine  appointment,  that  is  just 
what  Rome  taught  him.  Afterwards  she  made 
this  into  a  dogma  at  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  in 
her  Catechism  she  teaches  Presbyterianism  at  this 
day.1 

1  Part.  II.  cap.  vii.  qu.  22. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.  243 

29.     THE   GOOD  THINGS. 

But  the  great  question  remains,  What  is  the 
positive  good  which  we  trace  to  him?  I  go  back 
to  the  negatives  first  cited,  and  claim  them  all  as 
an  example  of  moderation,  and  humility,  and 
godly  patience,  which  furnish  an  example  to  all 
reformers,  and  which  convict  those  of  the  Conti- 
nent, whose  course  was  widely  different,  of  great 
responsibilities  for  the  failure  that  ensued.  He 
was  a  man  of  genius,  as  really  so  as  Calvin  or 
Luther;  but  he  raised  no  sect,  he  made  no 
Wiclifites.  We  owe  it  largely  to  him  that  the  An- 
glican Church  follows  no  human  lawgiver,  is  tied 
to  no  Schoolman,  and  has  no  "  Code  of  Belief."  * 
Enough  that,  with  long  and  patient  hopes  of  a 
reformed  Papacy,  he  at  last  was  led  to  the  just 
conclusions  which  the  Church  of  England  reached 
more  slowly,  as  to  its  unscriptural  and  uncatholic 
character.  When  to  all  this,  without  dwelling  on 
his  share  in  creating  our  language,  one  adds  his 
thorough  awakening  of  English  consciences,  and 
the  stimulus  he  gave  to  intellect  at  such  a  period, 
it  is  enough  to  demand  our  homage.  But  far 
more  is  his  due.  His  grand  work  was  the  trans- 
lating of  the  Bible.  Before  the  art  of  printing 
had  multiplied  books  and  made  such  work  easy, 
he  gave  the  Scriptures  to  every  English  Christian 
as  his  birthright.  But  hardly  second  to  this  was 
his  resting  the  work  of  restoration,  not  on  any 
scholastic  system,  but  on  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
He  stood  on  the  rule  of  Vincent,  in  point  of  fact, 
1  See  Note  Z". 


244       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

and  he  made  it,  as  I  shall  yet  show,  the  radical 
and  glorious  criterion  of  the  Anglican  Restora- 
tion, when  compared  with  the  Reformation  on  the 
Continent. 

30.     A   PERIOD   OF   DELAYS. 

Behold  the  wisdom  of  Providence  in  arresting 
the  work  just  there,  till  the  revival  of  learning 
and  the  deeper  convictions  of  pious  men  were  bet- 
ter prepared  for  its  completion.  Now  came  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  so  terrible,  but  so  necessary  to 
what  was  for  the  common  weal.  Under  the  house 
of  Lancaster  —  usurpers  who  strove  to  propitiate 
the  pontiffs  —  came  the  infamous  statute  for  burn- 
ing heretics.  It  was  overruled  to  make  the  Pa- 
parchy  more  detestable  than  ever.  Then  the  clash 
of  arms : 

"  Long  years  of  havoc  urge  their  destined  course, 
And  through  the  kindred  squadrons  mow  their  way." 

Yet  these  were  the  years  when  men  had  time  to 
reflect  as  well  as  to  fight,  and  to  ask  what  they 
were  contending  for.  Dean  Hook  observes  saga- 
ciously of  Richard  III.,  that  "  he  had  not  observed 
the  signs  of  the  times,  nor  perceived  how  the  spirit 
of  the  age  was  changed.  Christianity  even  in  its 
corruption  had  been  silently  doing  its  work.  War 
was  no  longer  regarded  as  the  only  honourable 
employment,  and  the  hearts  of  men  were  softened." 
Womanhood,  too,  as  he  observes,  was  assuming  a 
new  place  in  society.  In  short,  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures had  begun  to  be  read  and  loved. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         245 

31.     OUR   GREAT   BENEFACTORS. 

According  to  the  ennobling  principles  I  am  now 
illustrating,  we  should  be  just  as  truly  in  sympathy 
with  the  Anglican  Church  of  those  days  as  of  our 
own  times.  We  take  our  stand,  it  is  true,  with  the 
progressive  churchmen  of  those  days,  —  with  their 
patient  reforms,  as  well  as  with  their  bolder  con- 
flicts with  evil.  With  Wykeham,  that  far-seeing 
spirit  of  Edward  the  Third's  day,  we  may  rejoice 
to  claim  kindred.  This  great  architect,  as  founder 
of  schools  and  colleges,  was  undermining  the  mon- 
asteries, which  had  become  an  anachronism.  To 
him  succeed  Waynflete  and  Fox,  —  the  latter  in  a 
notable  instance  illustrating  my  point  under  the 
first  Tudor.  When  he  thought  of  founding  a  mon- 
astery one  of  his  brother  bishops  remonstrated : 
"  Why  build  and  provide  for  housing  monks,  whose 
end  and  fall  we  may  live  to  see?  .  .  .  Provide 
for  the  increase  of  learning,  and  for  such  (men) 
as  shall  do  good  to  the  Church  and  the  common- 
wealth." Fox  became  the  founder  of  schools 
accordingly,  and  especially  of  that  college  in  Ox- 
ford which  produced  the  very  model  of  such  men 
as  had  been  described,  the  judicious  Hooker.  Of 
this  sort  were  not  a  few  when  Erasmus  came 
to  Oxford  to  study  Greek.  Let  me  name  with 
special  reverence  Dean  Colet,  who  founded  St. 
Paul's  school  in  London.  Surely,  the  better  day 
was  already  begun.  With  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. 
we  cannot  now  concern  ourselves ;  but  in  him  the 
old  Britons  come  again  to  power.  Gray's  genius 
seizes  on  their  Welsh    name,  and   welcomes  the 


246       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Tudors  as  the  ancient  race  coming  to  their  own 
again :  — 

"All  hail,  ye  genuine  kings,  Britannia's  issue,  hail ! " 

God  had  indeed  a  work  for  them  to  do,  worthy  of 
Gladys  and  of  Linus ;  and  whether  they  willed  it 
or  not,  he  made  them  instruments  of  the  greatest 
blessings  to  our  race,  overruling  their  very  crimes 
for  the  good  of  his  Church  and  for  mankind. 

32.     THE   EPOCH   OF   WOLSEY. 

Where  Wiclif  left  the  spiritual  work  we  find  the 
whole  Anglican  Church  ready  to  take  it  up  and 
complete  it  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  day.  The  first 
prayer-book  of  Edward  VI.  would  better  attest 
where  he  stood.  Not  till  then  was  the  Church  of 
England  reformed  theologically.  What  happened 
under  Henry  VIII.  was  merely  the  reassertion  of 
those  temporal  rights  and  liberties  of  which  Rome 
had  divested  our  forefathers.  Certain  modifica- 
tions of  existing  practices  and  doctrines  were  in- 
deed attempted,  but  they  amounted  to  little  more 
than  Rome  herself  has  had  to  tolerate  ever  since 
the  Council  of  Trent.  Henry  himself  never  ceased 
to  burn  those  whom  Rome  accounted  heretics. 
His  laws  would  have  sent  to  the  stake  every  An- 
glican bishop,  priest,  and  deacon  who  accepts  the 
Anglican  prayer-book.  Whatever  he  was,  he  was 
bred  in  Rome's  school ;  his  life  was  fashioned 
after  that  of  princes  most  in  her  favour;  and  if  he 
was  not  a  better  man  than  he  should  be,  which  of 
the   Popes,  his   contemporaries,  set   him  a  better 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         247 

example?  His  character  I  abhor ;  for  it  reflected 
all  that  Rome  had  been  doing  for  the  corruption  of 
princes  for  centuries.  All  that  we  have  to  do  with 
him  is  to  note  that  his  quarrel  with  the  Pope  re- 
versed the  policy  of  the  kings  of  England,  who, 
since  the  Plantagenets,  had  favoured  the  Paparchy. 
Not  one  of  them  had  possessed  a  strictly  legitimate 
claim  to  the  crown,  and  they  needed  the  support 
of  Rome  to  prop  up  their  thrones.  Now  came 
one  who,  whatever  his  faults,  was  the  most  resolute 
and  courageous  prince  in  Christendom.  It  is  of 
no  consequence  to  our  case  whether  he  was  right 
or  wrong  in  his  personal  quarrel.1  A  conflict  arose 
which,  after  years  of  patient  waiting,  enabled  his 
people  and  the  Church  in  her  convocations  to  call 
upon  him  to  "  reassume  "  what  the  Plantagenets 
had  so  often  asserted,  what  even  under  "  the 
Roses "  and  the  first  Tudor  the  Church  had  not 
suffered  to  be  forgotten,  and  what  Henry  now  en- 
forced by  an  appeal  to  the  actual  law  in  the  old 
statutes  of  Provisors  and  Prcemunire.  By  these, 
the  legatine  position  of  Wolsey  and  others  was 
shown  to  have  been  illegal  and  void  from  the  be- 
ginning ;  and,  basely  as  Henry  may  have  treated 
the  Cardinal,  whom  he  tempted  into  his  false  posi- 
tion, the  crisis  had  come  when  the  Church  had  to 
speak  out  or  perish.  Cruel  as  were  the  circum- 
stances, her  voice  came  in  terrible  earnest,  —  the 
old  refrain,  Nolmmis  leges  Anglics  mutari,  —  We 
will  not  let  our  laws  be  changed. 

1  See  supra,  page  228,  and  Note  X". 


248       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

33.     RESTORED   RIGHTS. 

As  for  Wolsey,  how  beautifully  Shakespeare  has 
summed  up  his  good  and  bad,  putting  it  into  the 
mouth  of  such  a  "  chronicler  as  Griffith  "  !  Let  us 
hear  what  a  modern  Roman  Catholic  thinks  of  him. 
Mr.  Pugin  says  that  he  was  "  a  greater  instrument 
in  producing  the  English  schism  than  the  arch- 
heretic  Cranmer  himself.  .  .  .  By  his  vexatious 
exercise  of  his  legatine  power,  he  caused  the  spir- 
itual authority  of  the  Roman  pontiff  to  become  an 
odious  and  intolerable  burden ;  by  dissolving  reli- 
gious houses,  he  paved  the  way  for  the  destruction 
of  every  great  religious  establishment."  Pugin 
might  have  added,  that,  by  persecuting  the  mar- 
ried clergy,  while  he  himself  was  raising  illegitimate 
children,  he  faithfully  represented  the  contempo- 
rary Popes,  and  so  made  even  Henry  look  re- 
spectable. But  let  us  note  what  that  Bluebeard 
really  permitted  the  Church  to  do.  It  is  often  stu- 
pidly said  that  Henry  made  himself  "  Head  of  the 
Church,"  refusing  to  give  that  dignity  any  longer 
to  the  Pope.  The  facts  are,  that  he  did  nothing 
of  the  kind.  He  asserted  the  old  temporal  head- 
ship which  Adrian  had  recognized  in  Charlemagne 
and  the  Nicene  Fathers  in  Constantine;  nothing 
but  what  Gregory  the  Great  had  recognized  in  the 
miserable  Phocas;  nothing  but  what  the  Popes 
long  afterwards  allowed  the  Gallicans  to  recognize 
in  Louis  XIV. ;  nothing  but  what,  though  just 
then  eclipsed  by  legatine  assumptions,  had  been 
steadily  kept  up  and  maintained  down  to  these  very 
times  by  the  law  of  the  land.     Again,  this  head- 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         2A& 

ship,  or  "  supremacy,"  was  never  the  Pope's,  for 
his  supremacy  had  never  been  recognized  in  any 
way,  theologically  or  legally.  It  was  still  main- 
tained that  Christ  was  the  only  Supreme  Head  of 
the  Church,  and  nothing  but  temporalities  admit- 
ted of  any  earthly  supremacy.  Accordingly,  the 
headship  of  Henry  was  limited  when  the  whole 
convocation  voted  as  follows  {iiemine  contradicente) : 
"  Of  the  English  Church  and  clergy,  we  recognize 
his  Majesty  as  the  singular  protector  and  only 
supreme  governor,  and  so  far  as  the  law  of  Christ 
permits,  even  the  supreme  head."  How  far  was 
that?  No  further  than  had  been  conceded  to  Con- 
stantine  as  episcopus  ab  extra.  The  unreformed 
Henry  and  his  daughter  Mary  used  this  form; 
but  when  we  come  to  Elizabeth  and  to  the  theo- 
logical restoration,  she  herself  objected  to  its  ambi- 
guity. It  then  received  its  true  interpretation  in 
the  only  form  that  has  been  lawful  for  three  cen- 
turies :  the  English  sovereign  is  simply  styled 
"  supreme  governor  over  all  persons  and  in  all 
causes,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil."  And  this 
was  precisely  what,  during  the  entire  Paparchy,  the 
English  kings  had  always  legally  claimed  and  been 
able  to  defend  against  Rome  by  laws  of  Church 
and  State. 

34.     WHO   DID   THIS? 

And  here  let  us  recall  the  fact,  that  all  this 
was  done  by  the  unreformed  Church  of  England. 
Henry  was  himself  as  much  a  Papist  as  the  late 
Victor  Emmanuel.     But  he  and  many  divines  had 


25O       INSTITUTES   OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

fallen  back  on  the  old  idea  of  a  papal  primacy, 
under  the  ancient  canons,  and  were  determined  to 
restrict  the  Pope  to  what  he  had  been  before  the 
days  of  Nicholas.  So  utterly  undefined,  indeed, 
had  the  chimera  been  through  all  the  Middle  Ages, 
that  there  was  now  room  for  all  manner  of  theories 
as  to  what  the  Pope  should  be.  They  who  restored 
the  King's  rights  to  govern  his  own  kingdom 
without  foreign  meddling  differed  widely  as  to  the 
position  to  which  the  Papacy  was  now  replaced ; 
but  Gardyner  and  Bonner  themselves  voted  for  this 
measure.  The  Paparchy  was  at  an  end,  but  no- 
body yet  dreamed  of  detachment  from  the  Papacy. 
And  all  this  was  done  under  Archbishop  Warham, 
who  died  in  full  communion  with  Rome.  To  quote 
a  recent  writer,  himself  of  that  communion  :  — 

"  It  was  done  in  a  solemn  convocation,  a  reverend 
array  of  bishops,  abbots,  and  dignitaries,  in  orphreyed 
copes  and  jewelled  mitres.  Every  great  cathedral,  every 
diocese,  every  abbey,  was  duly  represented  in  that  impor- 
tant synod.  .  .  .  One  venerable  prelate  (Fisher)  protests ; 
his  remonstrance  is  unsupported  by  his  colleagues,  and  he 
is  speedily  brought  to  trial  and  execution.  Ignorantly  do 
we  charge  this  on  the  Protestant  system,  which  was  not 
even  broached  at  this  time.  His  accusers,  judges,  jury, 
his  executioner  —  all  Catholics  ;  the  bells  are  ringing  for 
mass  as  he  ascends  the  scaffold." 

This  is  all  true.  I  venerate  old  Bishop  Fisher, 
and  Sir  Thomas  More  no  less.1  They  would  have 
abhorred  the  late  Vatican  Council :  they  believed 
in  a  theoretical  papacy,  and  they  were  never 
"  Roman  Catholics." 

i  See  Note  A.'". 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         25  I 

35.     ANOTHER  STEP. 

The  second  step,  less  noted,  was  a  bold  stand 
made  by  the  convocation,  under  lead  of  the 
bishops,  for  limiting  the  royal  power  over  their 
convocations.  It  ended  in  compromise,  but  was  a 
landmark  of  what  the  Church  understood  as  her 
inherent  rights,  and  could  not  surrender  volunta- 
rily. So  far  under  Warham.  The  next  step,  how- 
ever, rose  to  the  position  of  Frankfort  and  of 
Constance  as  that  to  which  the  Papacy  was  put 
back.  In  A.  D.  1534,  "the  old  doctrine  was  af- 
firmed that  a  general  council  represented  the 
Church,  and  was  above  the  Pope  and  all  bishops, 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  having  had  no  greater  juris- 
diction given  him  by  God,  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
within  this  realm  of  England,  than  any  other  for- 
eign bishop."  Cranmer  was  now  primate,  and 
this  was  progress  to  full  Cypriote  independence 
and  to  Nicene  ideas  of  the  "  ancient  customs " 
which  ought  to  prevail.  Mark  also,  all  this  was 
done  by  the  Church.  No  act  of  Parliament  had 
touched  the  matter.  The  "  act  of  Parliament  re- 
ligion "  was  first  seen  under  Pole  and  Queen  Mary. 

36.     HOW  IT  LOOKED  IN  FRANCE. 

When  it  pleased  God  to  summon  King  Henry 
to  his  own  judgment,  we  must  observe  how  his 
case  was  regarded  by  others.  In  France,  it  must 
have  been  felt  that  he  had  simply  carried  out  Gal- 
lican  principles  to  an  unprecedented  extent ;  yet 
without  any  scruple,  and    in    contempt  of  Rome, 


252       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

a  mass  for  his  pious  soul  was  performed  with  all 
ceremony  at  Notre  Dame,  in  Paris,  by  order  of 
Francis  the  First.1  How  things  stood  before  the 
later  sessions  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  in  the  minds 
of  men  of  the  time,  is  evidenced  by  this  striking 
fact.  It  had  hardly  opened  its  work  of  seventeen 
years,  when  Henry  died. 


37.     THE  SEQUEL. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  the  theologi- 
cal reformation  was  undertaken,  and  too  hastily 
pressed  forward.  It  pleased  God  to  arrest  it  just 
when  it  might  have  been  imperilled  by  influences 
from  the  Continent,  and  blessings  came  in  disguise 
to  England  when  the  pious  and  princely  youth 
passed  away.  It  remained  for  the  short-lived  re- 
action under  Mary  to  give  England  once  more  a 
taste  of  papal  usurpation,  and  the  fires  of  Smith- 
field  and  of  Oxford  burnt  out  of  the  souls  of  Eng- 
lishmen the  last  traces  of  any  lingering  fealty  to 
the  Roman  see.  Once  more  a  papal  legate  en- 
tered England,  and  an  act  of  Parliament  overruled 
the  deliberate  action  of  the  Church.  The  legate 
was  only  a  deacon,2  yet  he  assumed  by  papal  au- 
thority to  grant  absolution,  and  that  not  only 
from  papal  censures,  but  from  sins !  Thus,  a  dea- 
con presumed  to  absolve  a  whole  house  of  bishops 
and  their  priests !  Queen  Mary  adopted  and  used 
her  father's  title  of  "  Head  of  the  Church."  In  her 
reign,  nothing  seems  to  have  been  done  canoni- 
cally,  if  we  judge  by  ancient  usages;  but  Pole 
1  See  Note  B'".  2  See  Note  C". 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.         253 

became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  by  the  royal 
mandate,  which  was  a  confession  of  her  suprem- 
acy, and  that  of  her  father,  too  as  Catholic  and 
lawful. 

38.    THE  BLOODY  QUEEN. 

Poor  Mary !  She  will  ever  be  remembered  as 
"the  Bloody,"  yet  the  blood  clings  to  the  skirts  of 
the  legate  rather  than  to  hers.  To  him,  and  to  her 
Spaniard  husband,  the  infamous  Don  Philip,  we 
must  trace  the  martyrdoms ;  they  reek  of  Alva's 
spirit,  and  of  Torquemada's.  Vain  is  the  attempt 
to  balance  them  by  Calvin's  cruelty  to  Servetus, — 
a  holocaust  by  a  kid  I1  Widely  different  were  the 
dynastic  barbarities  of  Henry  and  Elizabeth ;  the 
sufferers  under  the  Queen  were  traitors  and  assassins, 
who  would  have  made  a  St.  Bartholomew's  massa- 
cre in  England  if  they  could.  Hundreds  perished 
in  Mary's  reign  for  offences  technically  political ; 
but  over  and  above  these,  hundreds  of  her  victims 
were  martyrs.  We  except  the  saintliest  of  them 
all,  that  lovely  child  of  seventeen,  the  charming, 
the  brilliant  Lady  Jane.  Innocent  and  holy,  she 
died  for  treason,  —  not  hers  but  her  father's.  The 
martyrs  were  "  five  bishops,  twenty-one  divines, 
eight  gentlemen,  eighty-four  skilled  artisans,  one 
hundred  husbandmen,  and  twenty-six  women." 
Not  a  Calvinist  in  the  world  but  blushes  when 
Servetus  is  mentioned,  not  a  Puritan  but  avenges 
the  Quakers,  not  an  Anglican  who  does  not  abhor 
the  cruelties  of  Elizabeth;  but  Rome  glories  in 
the  rivers  of  blood  with  which  she  has  flooded  the 
1  See  Note  D"'. 


254       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

nations.  She  has  painted  the  Paris  massacre  at 
the  very  doors  of  her  pontiff's  private  chapel  as  a 
triumph  of  the  Church ;  she  sung  Te  Deums  and 
struck  medals  for  the  slaughter  of  the  Huguenots. 
Rome  never  repents. 

39.    THE  MARTYRS. 

Thank  God,  since  he  willed  it  so,  that  the  Angli- 
can restorers  died  not  in  their  beds,  but,  like  Poly- 
carp,  at  the  stake !  Five  bishops  sealed  their 
witness  with  their  blood,  and  breathed  out  their 
spirits  confessing  Truth  in  the  flames.  To  them 
we  owe,  under  God,  all  our  blessings  of  freedom  in 
the  state,  not  less  than  in  religion.  We  are  free  to 
breathe,  and  speak,  and  write,  and  cherish  our 
homes,  and  worship  God  amid  luxuries  of  devo- 
tion, because  they  counted  not  their  lives  dear  to 
them.  Not  without  faults  and  frailties ;  they  them- 
selves had  persecuted  perhaps ;  but  in  times  of 
unparalleled  trial  they  came  to  a  triumphant  end. 
When  they  advised  others  to  fly  for  their  lives,  they 
heroically  stood  by  the  ship.  I  should  as  soon  think 
of  reproaching  St.  Peter  for  his  fall,  as  Cranmer  for 
his  momentary  fright.  How  memorable  his  con- 
fession in  St.  Mary's  !  how  unflinching  the  hand  he 
laid  upon  the  flames  in  the  High  Street  of  Oxford  ! 
There  honest  Hugh  Latimer,  with  the  faithful  Rid- 
ley, had  lighted  the  candle  that  shall  never  cease  to 
illuminate  our  race.  How  gloriously  they  preached 
Christ  out  of  their  pulpit  of  fagots !  Those  ser- 
mons were  eloquent  beyond  rhetoric:  they  shall 
never  cease  to  thrill  the  hearts  of  Christian  men, 
good  and  true  like  them.     Nor  let  poor  Hooper  be 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  RESTORATION.  255 

forgotten,  —  a  doubting  Didymus  in  some  lesser 
things,  but  a  true  confessor  at  the  last,  and  a  hero, 
confessing  Christ  in  the  fire  amid  his  agonizing  and 
praying  flock  at  Gloucester.  Much  more  may  we 
praise  the  intrepid  Ferrar  at  Caermarthen.  Wales 
had  historic  claims  to  this  glory,  and  the  Roman- 
ized bishop  that  burned  him  was  the  namesake  of 
Pelagius,  her  only  historic  shame.  But  to  Ridley, 
so  far  as  man  can  judge,  belongs  the  more  graceful 
palm  and  the  more  starry  crown.  To  this  great 
spirit  we  owe  what  was  best  and  deepest  in  the 
fruits  of  Cranmer's  learning.  He  restored  the 
Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,  the  doctrine  of 
Ratramn,  and  the  ancient  doctrine  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  as  testified  in  the  Saxon  homily  of  yElfric. 
That  doctrine  is  the  corner-stone  of  liturgic  sci- 
ence, and  qualifies  all  worship.  Hence,  to  this 
profound  divine  and  holy  martyr  I  ascribe  more 
than  to  any  other  our  incomparable  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  the  first  book  of  Edward  the 
Sixth,  so  called,  reproduced  in  our  American  Lit- 
urgy. Who  can  estimate  its  value?  It  came  forth 
with  the  Bishops'  Bible,  —  next  to  the  Bible  the 
greatest  boon  to  our  race.  In'  these  gifts  the 
Restoration  was  already  complete,  in  all  that  was 
of  its  essence.  The  Marian  martyrs  sealed  it  with 
their  blood.  Like  a  precious  coffer  of  gold,  sub- 
jected to  the  furnace  to  purify  the  last  remnant  of 
its  dross,  the  Church  of  Linus  and  of  Gladys,1  of 
Alcuin  and  of  Alfred,  came  forth  from  the  fiery 
heat  restored  to  its  virgin  beauty,  a  "vessel  of 
honour,  fit  for  the  Master's  use." 
1  See  Note  E'". 


LECTURE   VIII. 
A   CATHOLIC   VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM. 

i.     THE  ACCESSION  OF  ELIZABETH. 

THE  Restoration  was  complete  when  Elizabeth 
succeeded  Mary.  Complete,  not  finished. 
Nothing  which  the  Anglican  Church  has  ever  re- 
garded as  essential  to  her  restored  condition  was 
wanting  when  King  Edward  died.  Her  "  Articles 
of  Religion  "  are  not  a  "  Code  of  Belief,"  nor  have 
they  ever  been  made  terms  of  communion  to  her 
children,  or  when  she  has  offered  her  maternal 
breast  to  strangers.  To  us  in  America  she  granted 
the  episcopate  and  full  communion,  with  no  stipu- 
lation whatever  as  to  the  Articles ;  nor  did  we  our- 
selves adopt  them  till  the  first  year  of  this  century. 
We  were  without  them  for  twenty  years.  I  am 
not  undervaluing  them;  they  require  no  apology; 
they  are  Catholic  doctrine ;  but  as  they  are  popu- 
larly represented  they  are  quite  another  thing. 

2.     THE  MARIAN  SCHISM. 

The  reign  of  Mary  was,  of  itself,  a  very  impor- 
tant stage  in  the  process  of  clinching  and  securing 
the  work  that  had  been  done.  The  legatine  in- 
trusion of  the  deacon,  Cardinal  Pole,  and  the  un- 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      2 $7 

doing  by  Act  of  Parliament  of  what  the  Church  of 
England  had  done  in  synod,  was  a  schism.  God 
is  wiser  than  men.  To  revise  results  and  to  secure 
them,  and  once  for  all  to  make  the  heart  of  Eng- 
land ready  to  ratify  the  rejection  of  the  Papacy, 
no  process  could  have  been  more  effectual  than 
this  experiment  of  reversal.  This  reign  wrought 
the  casting  out  of  devils.  It  was  the  last  assault 
of  papal  usurpation,  —  the  expiring  convulsion  of 
the  Paparchy  in  the  Church  of  our  forefathers. 
Poor  Mary  and  her  kinsman  and  primate  almost 
at  the  same  hour  gave  back  to  God  their  kindred 
spirits : 

"  Forbear  to  judge,  for  we  are  sinners  all. 

Close  up  their  eyes  and  draw  the  curtain  close ; 

And  let  us  all  to  meditation." 

Like  Cardinal  Beaufort,  in  Shakespeare's  inimitable 
portrayal,  so  perished  the  delusion  of  the  Decre- 
tals in  England.  Her  Church  stood,  once  more, 
on  the  old  foundations ;  her  metropolitical  throne 
rested  on  its  canonical  foothold,  the  Cypriote  Con- 
stitution,1 and  the  "ancient  usages"  of  Nicasa. 
Her  lawful  episcopate  survived  in  full  measure; 
in  England  sufficiently,  in  Ireland  more  largely. 
How  marked  the  providence  that  left  the  Primacy 
vacant  at  this  solemn  moment !  It  was  wisely 
and  opportunely  filled  by  the  consecration  of  the 
godly  and  well-learned  Matthew  Parker. 

1  See  Lecture  III.,  page  96. 
17 


258       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

3.     THE   RESTORED   AUTONOMY. 

Go  back  to  our  own  history,  after  our  episcopate 
was  established,  for  an  illustration  of  the  case  as  it 
stood  with  the  new  primate.     We  had  a  prayer- 
book  to   revise;    a  theological   framework    to  ar- 
range for  the  education  and  guidance  of  the  clergy, 
and  many  minor  matters  to  set  in  order  by  pro- 
vincial constitutions  and  canons.     None  other  was 
the  actual  situation  in  England  at  this  crisis.     The 
Second  Prayer-Book  of  Edward  had  hardly  been 
in  use  when  the  Marian  schism  intervened.     Revis- 
ion and  completion  were  the  first  requisites.     The 
creeds  were  an  all-sufficient  theological  base,  but 
they  had  been  so  overlaid  by  scholasticism  and  by 
pontifical  decrees,  that  a  reform  of  the   received 
system  was  necessary.     In  Henry's  time,  and  sub- 
sequently, conflicting  experiments  had  been  tried, 
but  they  were  experiments  only.     The  "  Bishops' 
Bible  "  was  the  one  all-important  and  munificent 
bequest  of  that  transitional  reign.     It  is  a  monu- 
ment  of  the    Biblical    character  imparted   to  our 
reforms  by  Wiclif  himself.      The    Germans,   who 
have  only  lately  awakened   to   their  own   obliga- 
tions to  our  great  Reformer,  accuse  him  truthfully 
with  not  understanding  "  Justification  by  Faith  "  ; 
that  is,   of  course,   as   they    understand    it.      But 
what  they  esteem   a   defect  is    indeed   his    glory. 
The  Scriptures,  with  "  reason  and  authority  "  for 
their  interpreters,  were  made  by  Wiclif  the  corner 
stone  of  Anglican  Restoration.      The    Reformers 
of  the  Continent  risked  all  on  Scholastic  subtilties, 
beginning  with   Luther's  maxim    that    "  Justifka- 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      259 

tion,"  as  he  defined  it,  is  "  the  criterion  of  a  stand- 
ing or  falling  church."  The  consequences  are 
significant  as  they  arc  immense.  A  Scriptural 
reformation  was  Catholic  Restoration ;  the  Scho- 
lastic reformation  could  only  end  in  ecclesiastical 
suicide,  and  in  the  evolution  of  endless  divisions 
and  conflicting  sects. 


4.     THE   ARTICLES. 

But,  at  such  a  moment,  when  the  Latin  churches 
were  committing  themselves  more  and  more  inex- 
tricably to  school  doctrines  which  had  been  en- 
larged and  shaped  into  dogmas  and  unlimited 
refinements  upon  the  Faith,  and  when  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation  was  given  over  to  like  specula- 
tions, as  yet  indeterminate  and  embroiling  its 
leaders  one  with  another,  it  was  impossible  that 
Scholasticism  should  not  be  at  work  among  the 
profoundly  learned  and  thoughtful  scholars  and  di- 
vines of  England.  When  we  look  at  the  case  as  it 
thus  stood  under  Parker,  we  may  wonder,  indeed, 
at  the  issue.  Revising  the  draught  of  Cranmer 
and  Ridley,  and  reducing  their  Articles  to  thirty- 
nine,  he  gave  us,  substantially,  what  we  still  retain. 
What  are  they?  Not  a  "  Code  of  Belief,"  in  any 
sense,  though  they  include  the  Creed  and  the  defi- 
nitions of  the  CEcumenical  Councils.  A  correc- 
tion of  school  doctrine,  by  Scripture  and  antiquity, 
is  found  in  twenty-six  articles  beginning  with  the 
ninth.  Viewed  apart  from  these,  they  amount  to 
a  rejection  of  Scholasticism  as  a  system,  and  a  strict 
limitation  of  Scholastic  teaching  to  certain  theses. 


260       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

The  age  was  rife  with  Scholastic  discussions.  It 
was  impossible  that  Anglican  divines  should  have 
no  opinions  about  them.  Their  public  teaching, 
however,  was  hereby  restrained  in  a  practical  man- 
ner, within  certain  bounds,  allowing  freedom  of 
inquiry  and  of  thought,  but  setting  metes  and  safe- 
guards to  controversy.  In  this  view,  I  admire  the 
Articles.  They  practically  eliminated  Scholasti- 
cism from  the  domain,  of  conscience  and  made  us 
free,  as  Truth  only  can.  After  the  debates  of  a 
century,  in  which  they  furnished  an  escape  valve 
for  the  spirit  of  disputation,  it  was  left  for  our 
great  theologian,  Bishop  Bull,  to  secure  what 
Hooker  had  promoted,  a  practical  end  of  contro- 
versy. In  his  "  Defence  of  the  Nicene  Creed," 
he  illustrated  our  Catholic  position  so  admirably 
as  to  win  the  homage  of  Bossuet  and  the  whole 
Gallican  Episcopate.  In  his  "  Harmonia  Apos- 
tolica,"  he  refuted  the  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic 
theories,  and  placed  the  exposition  of  our  Articles 
upon  a  sure  foundation.  The  famous  Seventeenth 
Article1  ignores  the  crucial  point  of  Calvinism  and 
Arminianism  alike,  and  leaves  the  outline  of  truth 
indeterminate  as  to  causation.  This  enables  all 
Scriptural  minds  to  accept  it.  As  diversions  and 
gymnastical  exercises,  the  old  discussions  will  never 
wholly  die  out;  they  exist  in  the  nature  and  the 
moral  faculties  of  the  human  mind.  But  they  no 
longer  ensnare  or  enslave  men's  consciences.  The 
results  fully  justify  the  wisdom  and  purpose  of  the 
Articles ;  nor,  so  long  as  St.  Augustine  is  remem- 
bered and  studied,  can  they  ever  cease  to  be  useful. 
1  See  Note  F"'. 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      26 1 

5.     THEIR  CATHOLIC   CORE. 

In  the  Sixth  Article  is  embodied  the  great  Ni- 
cene  principle  of  our  Restoration;  and  in  the 
Thirty-fourth,  to  say  nothing  of  others,  we  have 
the  pith  and  marrow  of  the  Vincentian  Rule  prac- 
tically applied.  The  Sixth  I  must  quote  in  full. 
It  is  on  "  The  Sufficiency  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
for  Salvation,"  as  follows :  — 

"  Holy  Scripture  containeth  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation  ;  so  that  whatsoever  is  not  read  therein,  nor  may 
be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to  be  required  of  any  man,  that 
it  should  be  believed  as  an  article  of  the  Faith,  or  be 
thought  requisite  or  necessary  to  salvation." 

This  golden  Article  merely  imitates  the  great 
Councils,  putting  the  Scriptures  on  a  throne  in  the 
midst  of  the  Church,  as  the  oracle  of  Christ's  infal- 
lible Vicar,  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  was  accompanied 
by  the  golden  canon  which  affirms  Vincent's  rule, 
and  restricts  preachers  to  the  word  of  God,  and 
what  "  the  Catholic  Fathers  and  old  bishops  have 
gathered  from  its  teaching." 

6.     THE   FORMATION   OF  THE  TRENTINE  CHURCH. 

Thus  the  English  Church  was  restored  before 
"  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  "  was  in  existence. 
I  must  thank  the  French  savant,  Quinet,1  for  a 
suggestive  statement  of  facts  which  demonstrate 
what  professed  historians  have  too  generally  over- 
looked. The  spirit  which  Constance  and  Basle  had 
striven  to  eliminate  was  made  at  Trent,  as  he  says, 
1  See  Note  G". 


262       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

"  the  very  Constitution  of  the  Church."  In  other 
words,  Trent  created  a  new  Constitution,  organiz- 
ing what  remained  of  the  Latin  churches  into  a 
Western  spiritual  and  temporal  empire,  —  a  pro- 
vincial church  claiming  to  be  the  whole  Church. 
Quinet  observes,  that  "  the  artifice  consisted  in 
making  this  change  without  anywhere  speaking  of 
it.  .  .  .  From  that  moment  Popedom  usurps  all 
Christendom." 

He  notes  how  craftily  all  the  notes  of  the  old 
(Ecumenical  Councils  were  got  rid  of.  The  East 
and  the  North  were  almost  equally  wanting;  — 
Italian  prelates,  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven ; 
only  two  German  bishops  ;  Spaniards,  thirty-two  ; 
Frenchmen,  twenty-six ;  and  the  voting  changed 
from  churches  to  individuals,  a  vote  for  every 
member  of  the  Council  personally,  so  that  the 
Italian  bishops  swallowed  up  all  the  rest.  The 
French  were  so  ill-treated  that  their  ambassadors 
left  the  Council.  The  Spanish  bishops  were  vir- 
tually driven  out.  "  Exeant,  Let  them  go,"  shouted 
the  Italians.  "  Laynez,  the  Jesuit,  became  the  soul 
of  the  Council,  and,  reaction  against  the  North 
prevailing  over  every  other  idea,  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Church  assumed  a  new  form!'  In  other 
words,  the  modern  "  Roman  Catholic  Church"  —  a 
gigantic  sect,  but  a  sect  only  —  was  thus  created. 
It  emerged  from  that  portentous  conventicle  of 
seventeen  years'  duration  with  only  a  vestige  left 
of  the  Latin  churches,  as  such.  They  had  been  ab- 
sorbed, or  rather  they  were  caged  in  the  iron  frame- 
work of  a  new  and  anomalous  union.  France, 
refusing  the  discipline  and  accepting  only  the  new 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      263 

creed    subject    to    Gallican    interpretations,     pre- 
served the  Gallican  "  name  to  live,"  while  doomed 
to  die.     And  so  a  new  church  emerged  from  the 
Trent   caldron,   (1)   with  a  new    Canon  of    Holy- 
Scripture,  including  the  Apocrypha,  as  equal  with 
the  Prophets ;   (2)  a  new  Creed,  that  of  Pius  IV.  ; 
(3)  a  new   "  Code    of  Belief,"  necessary    to   sal- 
vation,   embracing    all    the    interminable     defini- 
tions of  the  Trent  Council ;   (4)  a  new  system  of 
church  polity,  in  which  a  presbyterian  theory  of 
the  ministry  is  made  dogmatic,1  and  the  Episco- 
pate is  no  longer  recognized  as  one  of  the  Holy 
Orders;   (5)  a  new  main-spring  of  vitality,  wholly 
sectarian  in  its  character,  namely,   the  consolida- 
tion of  the  Society  of  Jesuits  with  the  new  Con- 
stitution, in  such  manner  as  to  make  their  General 
its  practical  lord  and  master,  and  the  Pope  him- 
self only  the   mouthpiece   of  their  decisions  and 
decrees.     From   absorption  into  this  sect,  and  all 
the  ruin  and  debasement  which  have  followed  in 
every    nation    that   has    accepted    it,    the    Nicene 
Church  of  England  was  saved  as  "  a  brand  plucked 
from  the  burning."     Such  was  "  the  arrow  of  the 
Lord's  deliverance,"  when  Queen  Mary  died,  and 
Don    Philip    went    to    found    the    Inquisition  and 
prosecute    his    cruelties    in    Spain    and    the    Low 
Countries.      These  he  had  designed  for  England 
when   by  the  Divine  Providence    Parker   became 
Metropolitan,  exclaiming,  "  Lord,  into  what  times 
hast  thou  brought  me?" 

1  See  Note  H'". 


264       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 
7.     RETROSPECT. 

Let  me  now  go  back  to  events  from  which  all 
this  came  forth,  and  see  whether  Germany  and 
Northern  Europe  owe  not  all  their  troubles  to 
half-way  measures,  and  to  their  blind  refusal  to 
proceed  as  England  did  in  the  line  of  Restoration. 
Let  us  note  how,  by  refusing  to  hear  the  voice  of 
Wiclif,  they  incurred  the  revolutions  of  Luther  and 
the  despotism  of  Laynez.  Wiclif's  light  had  not 
been  hidden  under  a  bushel :  it  began  to  illuminate 
Europe  before  he  died.  The  Universities  of  Eu- 
rope were  a  great  exchange  for  the  commerce  of 
learning  and  of  thought.  From  the  Moldau  young 
scholars  came  to  the  Isis ;  Oxford  and  Prague 
were  in  close  relations  in  Wiclif's  day,  and  when 
Anne  of  Luxembourg,  "  the  good  Queen  Anne," 
arrived  in  England  to  marry  King  Richard,  she 
was  attended  by  a  retinue  of  learned  youth  and 
accomplished  men.  These  found  Wiclif  and  his 
doctrines  the  talk  of  the  Court,  the  Church,  and 
the  Universities.  The  "  great  Evangelical  Doctor  " 
had  just  published  his  Bible,  and  manuscript  copies 
were  multiplied.  It  is  known  that  Queen  Anne 
herself  became  a  Bible  reader,  and  a  lover  of 
Wiclif's  name  and  person.  She  survived  him  for 
ten  years,  and  on  her  death  her  attendants  re- 
turned to  Prague  with  Wiclif's  books,  and  im- 
pressed with  his  great  idea  of  giving  free  circula- 
tion to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  In  a.  D.  1397  came 
back  from  Oxford  that  brilliant  youth,  Jerome  of 
Prague,  a  Bohemian  knight.  He  brought  with 
him  books   and  parchments,    copied  by    his  own 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      265 

hand  from  Wiclif's  writings.  He  showed  them  to 
John  Huss,  destined  to  be  the  Wiclif  of  Bohemia; 
but  he  was  no  Wiclif  then.  After  reading  one  of 
the  proscribed  books,  he  advised  Jerome  to  burn 
it,  or  to  toss  it  into  the  Moldau ;  no  doubt  a  sacri- 
fice to  the  local  saint,  St.  John  Nepomucene,  whose 
bridge  spans  that  river, —  the  "proud  arch"  of 
Campbell's  poetry.  But  from  that  moment  the 
study  of  the  Evangelical  Doctor  became  more 
general,  and  it  electified  Bohemia.  The  century 
of  discovery  and  invention  opened  with  this  move- 
ment. Huss  was  now  confessor  to  King  Wenzel's 
second  wife,  Queen  Sophia  of  Bavaria;  he  was  the 
most  faithful  and  eloquent  of  court  preachers,  and 
the  rising  man. 


8.     THE   MISTAKE   OF   GERSON. 

Happy  had  it  been  for  Germany  and  for  Bohemia 
too  had  these  master  spirits  been  allowed  to  open 
and  control  the  Continental  Reformation.  It  would 
then  have  proceeded,  probably,  as  in  England, 
upon  the  lines  of  Restoration ;  for  these  illustrious 
men  were  Catholics,  not  sectarians,  and  to  the  last 
they  prompted  no  subversive  measures.  I  love 
them  as  Anglicans  at  heart;  by  which  I  mean  true 
Catholics,  who  would  have  guided  their  fellow 
Catholics  of  Europe  into  the  paths  of  Nicene  re- 
vival and  orthodoxy.  But  just  here  things  took 
a  decisive  turn  in  another  direction.  The  justly 
celebrated  Gerson,  Chancellor  of  the  Archdiocese 
of  Paris,  eminent  for  his  learning  and  his  piety, 
gained  the  control  of  the   reforming   demands  of 


266       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Europe.    The  Popes  of  Avignon  and  of  the  schism 
that  followed,  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  had 
kept   the  churches    and   the  nations  in  perpetual 
broils,  demonstrating  the  folly  of  pretending  that 
the   Paparchy  was  a  bond    of  unity.      Moreover, 
the  vices  of  these  popes  and  antipopcs,  with  their 
licentious  courts,  had  become  an  abomination  that 
"  smelled  to  heaven."     No  words  can  do  justice  to 
their  immoralities,  except  those  of  their  contem- 
poraries, who  not  only  saw  them,  but  shared  them. 
The  groans  of  the  Latin  churches  were  universal; 
an  outcry  for  a  reformation  of  the  Church  "  in  its 
head  and  its  members."     Gerson  was  in  no  respect 
in  advance  of  his  age ;   he  was  a  Gallican,  but  a 
Scholastic  and  a  fanatical  Nominalist ;   he  was  the 
honest  dupe  of  the  canon  law,  which  means  of  the 
forged  Decretals.     He  accepted,  therefore,  an  ideal 
papacy ;   not  at  all  the  Paparchy  as  it  then  existed. 
As  a  Gallican,  he  fell  back  upon  the  principles  of 
Frankfort,  supposing  that,  if  the  Popes  could  be  put 
back  to  what  Charlemagne  found  them,  all  would 
be  well.       His  great  scheme  was  to  make  Councils 
supreme ;    to  empower  them  to  depose  a  bad  Pope 
and  elect  a  new  one ;   and,  in  general,  to  recognize 
no  other  supreme  authority  in  Christendom.     How 
plausible !     Here  was  the    great  Nicene   doctrine 
saddled,  and,  as  it  proved,  rendered  abortive,  by 
the  Decretalist  whim  that  there  must  be  a  Pope 
of  some  sort.     However,   so    far  and    no    further 
could  Gerson  and  the  Gallicans  proceed.     It  was 
progress   for  the    Latin    churches    in   general.     It 
was  the  old,  ill-conceived  position  of  poor,  puzzled 
Hincmar,    and   the    Anglicans    had    adopted    this 


A    CATHOLIC   VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      26 J 

same  idea  under  Anselm  and  the  Normans.  Just 
here  also  stood  Sir  Thomas  More  and  dear  old 
Bishop  Fisher,  when  the  tyrant  Plenry  took  their 
heads  off  for  not  going  further  while  he  was  dis- 
posed to  do  so.  In  other  respects  Henry  and 
they  stood  together;  they  learned  this  policy  of 
Gerson. 

9.     SCHOOL   GRUDGES. 

There  was  another  clog  of  which  we  cannot  now 
comprehend  the  immense  significance.  Wiclif  was 
a  Realist,  and  Realism  was  fashionable  with  all 
who  had  learned  from  him.  Gerson  was  a  bigoted 
Nominalist,  and  therefore  hated  the  name  of  Wiclif, 
attributing  to  the  Realists  all  the  mischief  of  his 
writings.  Puritans  and  Cavaliers  never  hated  one 
another  more  passionately  than  did  these  rival 
schools,  each  inspired  by  the  odium  theologicum  to 
the  verge  of  frenzy  against  opponents.  Gerson's 
scheme  of  reform  included,  therefore,  two  antago- 
nistic schemes.  He  drew  a  line  thus :  (1.)  There 
must  be  no  reformation  of  doctrine,  and  all  re- 
proach of  "  Wiclifism "  must  be  put  away  by 
stringent  measures.  (2.)  This  point  secured,  the 
authority  of  councils  must  be  asserted,  and  prac- 
tically carried  out,  to  any  extent  found  necessary. 
Such  were  the  ideas  that  called  the  Council  of 
Pisa  (A.  D.  1407),  designed  for  a  cleansing  of  the 
Augean  stables  of  the  Paparchy.  There  were 
now  two  rival  popes,  and  Europe  was  a  very  hell 
between  them,  everywhere  embroiled  in  quarrels 
political  and  religious.     Who  was  Pope  and  who 


268       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

was  Antichrist?  One  nation  was  tied  to  a  French 
pope,  another  held  to  his  rival.  Gregory  had 
Rome  in  actual  possession,  and  felt  that  nine 
points  of  the  law  were  with  him.  But  such  were 
his  oaths  and  perjuries,  his  protestations  and  his 
subterfuges,  that  finally  his  cardinals,  all  save 
seven,  turned  upon  him  and  appealed  to  a  General 
Council.  They  professed  to  fear  that  he  would 
assassinate  them  all.  They  became  Gallicans  all 
of  a  sudden,  and  said,  "  We  appeal  from  the  Pope 
to  Jesus  Christ,  of  whom  he  is  vicar;  from  the 
Pope  to  a  Council,  to  which  it  belongs  to  judge 
the  sovereign  pontiff;  from  the  present  Pope  to 
a  future  Pope,  authorized  to  redress  what  his  pre- 
decessor has  unwarrantably  enacted." 

10.    PISA. 

Behold  that  ancient  cathedral  hard  by  the  lean- 
ing tower  in  Pisa.  There  the  Council  was  opened, 
with  august  ceremonial,  on  the  Feast  of  the  An- 
nunciation, a.  d.  1409.  John  Gerson  was  there  in 
person  to  press  his  doctrines  with  admirable  force 
and  logic.  D'Ailly,  Archbishop  of  Cambrai,  was, 
next  to  him,  the  leader;  a  genius  who  anticipates 
Bossuet  in  the  sobriquet  of  "  the  Eagle  "  of  France. 
As  the  result,  both  popes  were  deposed,  and  the 
Roman  See  declared  vacant.  All  their  bulls, 
anathemas,  and  excommunications  were  declared 
null  and  void.  They  proceeded  to  an  election, 
and  Philargus  of  Milan,  a  good  old  man,  was  pro- 
claimed Pope,  as  Alexander  V.  This  was  brought 
about  by  the  legerdemain  of  Balthasar  Cossa,  who 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      269 

will  soon  appear  again.  Counter  councils  were 
called,  of  course,  in  favour  of  the  deposed  pretend- 
ers ;  but  the  work  at  Pisa  closed  here,  and  the 
respectability  of  the  new  pontiff  stifled  for  the 
moment  all  clamours  for  reform.  John  Huss  gave 
his  hopeful  adhesion  to  Alexander;  but  one  voice 
was  lifted  up  for  more  effectual  reforms.  The 
learned  and  saintly  Clemangis,  once  rector  of  the 
Sorbonne,  was  studying  the  Scriptures  in  holy 
retirement  in  the  vale  of  Langres.  He  shared 
Wiclif's  ideas  for  more  thorough  work.  "The 
Council  of  Pisa,"  said  he,  "  has  only  trifled  with 
the  Church,  crying,  Peace,  peace,  when  there  is  no 
peace." 

11.     SIGISMUND   VISITS    ENGLAND. 

At  this  time  Sigismund,  the  Emperor  elect  of 
Germany,  had  not  been  crowned,  and  his  difficul- 
ties led  him  to  desire  another  Council.  Chicheley 
was  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  was  engaged 
in  fierce  controversies  with  the  Lollards,  when  the 
Emperor  arrived  in  London  to  persuade  England 
to  unite  with  France  for  the  carrying  out  of  the 
reforms  Pisa  had  failed  to  effect.  Doubtless  he 
gained  very  false  ideas  of  Wiclif,  at  this  juncture, 
confounding  the  turbulent  Lollards  with  his  dis- 
ciples, and  hence  all  the  more  readily  accepting 
Gerson's  opposition  to  Wiclif  as  the  only  safe 
course  for  crowned  heads.  He  was  brother  to 
the  good  Queen  Anne,  and  better  things  might 
have  been  hoped  from  him  had  he  not  been  the 
Emperor  and  a  sensual  voluptuary. 


27O       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

12.     THE   ENGLISH    EMBASSY   TO   CONSTANCE. 

Chicheley  appointed  three  bishops  to  attend 
the  new  Council,  summoned  to  meet  at  Constance. 
Hallam  of  Salisbury  and  Bubwith  of  Bath,  with 
Mascall  of  Hereford,  made  the  embassy.  Hal- 
lam was  the  leading  spirit.  The  King  sent  a  lay 
delegation  as  co-ambassadors,  and  a  vast  and 
splendid  retinue  attended  them.  The  Emperor 
received  them  with  special  honours,  and  wore  his 
English  decorations  of  the  Garter  when  he  en- 
tered Constance.  He  had  been  recently  crowned 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  over  the  sepulchre  of  Charle- 
magne. Frankfort  was  opened  again  at  Con- 
stance, as  I  have  said,  but  only  to  make  itself 
a  monument  of  Gerson's  folly,  in  his  fond  attempt 
to  reconcile  any  theoretical  Papacy  whatever  with 
Catholic  Councils  and  the  old  Nicene  Constitu- 
tions. The  Decretals  had  done  their  work ;  men's 
minds  had  been  chained  by  them  for  five  centuries, 
and  the  "  immedicable  wound "  could  only  be 
remedied  by  eradication  and  actual  cautery. 

13.     HUSS    AS   A   REFORMER. 

Under  the  impulse  given  him  by  Jerome  of 
Prague,  Huss  was  already  known  as  a  reformer 
less  fanciful  than  Gerson,  though  he  by  no  means 
saw  the  impossibility  of  retaining  the  Papacy. 
Wise,  holy,  and  inspired  by  communion  with 
God  in  Holy  Scripture,  he  was  nevertheless  far 
in  advance  of  his  times,  and  his  reputation  as  a 
"  Wiclifite  "  insured  him  the  deadly  hatred  of  the 


A    CATHOLIC  VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      2j\ 

Council.  When  the  Archbishop  of  Prague  had 
burned  Wiclif's  books  with  public  ceremony, 
Huss  rebuked  the  act,  and  carried  with  him  the 
heart  of  Bohemia.  Though  he  committed  himself 
to  nothing  more  than  a  plea  for  liberty  to  read 
and  examine,  he  was  everywhere  stigmatized  as 
Wiclif's  disciple.  He  even  appealed  to  Rome,  — 
yes,  to  that  same  Balthasar  Cossa,  now  John  XXIII. 
This  was  in  the  matter  of  an  episcopal  censure 
vented  against  him  when  he  opposed  the  book- 
burning.  This  marks  where  he  stood  at  this  time. 
So  far  he  was  with  Gerson.  Alas !  why  was  not 
Gerson  with  him? 

14.     CONSTANCE. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  dwell  on  the  history 
of  this  great  man.  Let  us  come  to  the  Council. 
The  infamies  of  John  XXIII.  were  unutterable; 
and  this  was  the  pontiff  who  answered  the  appeal 
of  Huss  by  a  bull  of  excommunication,  in  a.  d. 
141 2.  It  is  noteworthy  that,  in  protesting  against 
it  in  a  most  catholic  spirit,  Huss  quoted  the  well- 
known  example  of  Greathead,  the  saintly  Robert 
of  Lincoln.  The  Council  was  opened  at  last, 
and  Huss  was  summoned  to  be  present.  The 
Emperor  gave  him  a  safe-conduct  to  go  and  to 
return.  Jerome  kissed  him  as  he  left  Prague : 
"  Dear  master,"  said  he,  "  be  firm."  Already  the 
wicked  Pope  had  appeared  on  the  scene,  his  am- 
bitious splendours  and  the  unblushing  shame  of 
his  conduct  and  that  of  his  courtiers  adding  to 
the  scorn  of  all  decent  men.     Huss  soon  found 


272       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

himself  a  prisoner  at  Constance,  where  he  had 
opened  his  cause  with  dignity  and  power.  The 
Emperor  ordered  his  release,  but  Sigismund  had 
not  yet  arrived  in  person,  and  the  Pope  had.  So 
the  latter  kept  Huss  confined.  When  Sigis- 
mund appeared,  the  Pope's  own  case  was  upper- 
most, and  Huss  was  left  in  prison.  Jerome  too 
had  been  cited ;  he  also  came  and  was  imprisoned. 
It  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  Wiclif  and  his 
followers  must  be  condemned,  to  balance  what 
they  meant  to  do  with  Pope  John.  When  this 
pontiff's  character  and  conduct  were  under  exam- 
ination, his  crimes  proved  so  frightful,  that  our 
Hallam,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  gave  it  as  his  opinion, 
that  "he  ought  to  be  burned  at  the  stake."  He 
fled  from  Constance  in  terror,  and  the  Council 
solemnly  deposed  him  on  the  last  day  of  May, 
141 5.  The  arrogant  John  became  the  most  ab- 
ject of  suppliants.  In  outward  appearance,  at 
least,  he  accepted  his  sentence,  and  ratified  it 
by  his  own  hand. 

15.    THE  MARTYRS   OF   CONSTANCE. 

When,  after  an  extraordinary  revival  of  the  old 
scholastic  controversies,  John  Huss  found  himself 
condemned,  he  stood  in  the  presence  of  Sigismund, 
and  looked  him  steadfastly  in  the  face,  as  he  said, 
"  I  came  here  on  the  safe-conduct  of  the  Em- 
peror." Sigismund  crimsoned  to  his  forehead,  and 
that  blush  saved  Luther  at  Worms.  Charles-Quint 
said,  "  I  should  not  like  to  blush  like  Sigismund." 
It  is  said  that  Huss  and  Jerome  both  prophesied 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      273 

a  day  of  other  counsels.  "  You  roast  a  goose 
to-day,"  said  Huss,  punning  on  his  own  name  ;  "  in 
a  hundred  years  will  come  a  swan l  you  cannot 
burn."  Why  dwell  on  the  heroic  martyrdoms 
of  Huss  and  the  brilliant  Jerome?  Reciting  the 
creeds  and  praying  to  Jesus,  these  intrepid  heroes 
bore  witness  to  the  Faith,  tineas  Sylvius,  after- 
wards Pope,  said :  "  They  went  to  their  punish- 
ment as  to  a  feast.  Not  a  word  escaped  them 
which  betrayed  a  particle  of  weakness.  In  the 
midst  of  the  flames,  without  ceasing,  they  sang 
hymns  to  their  last  breath.  No  philosopher  ever 
suffered  death  with  such  constancy  as  they  en- 
dured in  the  flames."  So  speaks  one  who  saw 
it  all  and  shared  it  all,  —  an  enemy  and  a  subse- 
quent Pope.  Who  will  not  say  Amen,  when  I 
devoutly  look  up  to  God  and  add,  May  my  soul 
be  with  theirs  when  we  all  come  to  stand  before 
the  only  just  tribunal,  at  the  last  day  ! 

16.     THE   INFAMY    OF   CONSTANCE. 

The  martyrdoms  were  dramatically  carried  out, 
with  refinements  of  cruelty  and  torture  too  horrible 
to  narrate.  Was  there  ever  such  work  done  by 
Christians  in  council  assembled  under  invocation 
of  the  Holy  Ghost?  To  a  calm  observer,  there 
were  but  hair-splitting  differences  between  the 
burners  and  the  burnt.  Good  Lord,  forgive  them, 
for  they  knew  not  what  they  did  !  Constance  was 
smitten  with  impotency  from  that  hour,  and  Ger- 
son's  great  learning  and  virtues  perished  without 

1  Luther's  device  was  a  swan. 
IS 


274      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

any  adequate  record  of  success.  Ignorantly  he 
had  entailed  upon  France  and  Germany  the  con- 
vulsions that  for  a  century,  after  Luther,  made 
Europe  an  Aceldama.  Nay,  the  French  Revolu- 
tion itself  may  be  traced  to  the  reactionary  con- 
sequences of  Gerson's  failure  to  promote  such 
a  Catholic  Restoration  as  was  insured  in  England 
under  wiser  counsels.  Poor  John  Gerson !  To 
his  fanatical  aversions  we  owe  another  disgrace- 
ful act,  which  likened  this  Council  to  hyaenas  that 
prey  upon  the  dead.  Wiclif's  bones  must  be  dug 
up  and  consumed.  On  such  a  dismal  errand  came 
commissioners  to  quiet  Lutterworth,  and  there 
they  enacted  this  mockery.  The  sacred  ashes  of 
the  great  confessor  were  thrown  into  a  little  brook 
that  murmurs  under  the  old  walls  of  his  church. 
And  Fuller  quaintly  says :  "  Thus  this  brook  hath 
conveyed  his  ashes  into  Avon,  Avon  into  Severn, 
Severn  into  the  narrow  seas,  then  into  the  main 
ocean  ;  and  thus  the  ashes  of  Wiclif  are  the  em- 
blem of  his  doctrine,  which  now  is  dispersed  all 
the  world  over." 


17.     ONE    VOTE   AND    THE    CONSEQUENCES. 

The  eloquence  of  Jerome  as  he  pleaded  before 
the  Council  is  said  to  have  left  Cicero  in  the  shade. 
Huss  was  hardly  less  eloquent.  Both  were  yet 
young  men.  Huss  suffered  on  his  birthday,  aged 
forty-five ;  Jerome  was  about  the  same  age,  and 
was  a  layman.  With  them  passed  away  the  hope 
of  Catholic  reformation  for  the  Latin  churches. 
One  vote  cast  at  Constance  by  the  English  Bishop 


A    CATHOLIC   VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      2J$ 

of  Bath  elected  Martin  V.  in  place  of  John.  That 
vote,  says  Dean  Hook,  "  delayed  the  cause  of  re- 
form for  a  century."  It  did  far  more.  It  threw 
the  inevitable  into  the  hands  of  another  genera- 
tion, and  of  men  of  another  character,  who,  as 
I  have  shown,  were  not  restorers,  but  Scholastic 
doctors,  —  giants  who  built  up  nothing  in  place  of 
what  they  threw  down. 

iS.     THE    COUNCIL   OF   BASLE. 

We  must  regard  the  Council  of  Basle  as  a  mere 
continuation  of  that  of  Constance,  and  it  was  far 
more  resolute  and  creditable  to  its  engineers. 
Pope  Martin  was  forced  to  convoke  it,1  and  severe 
were  its  reproaches  against  his  duplicity  in  trying 
to  postpone.  Over  and  over  again  had  he  la- 
boured to  convene  it  in  Italy,  but  they  defied  him, 
and  insisted  on  Basle,  under  Sigismund's  protection. 
Here  was  something  like  Frankfort  again.  He 
did  not  live  to  see  it  opened,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Eugenius  IV.  This  Pope  pronounced  the 
Council  dissolved,  but  they  asserted  their  superi- 
ority as  a  "  General  Council,"  and  went  on.  They 
proved  too  strong  for  the  Pope,  and  he  was  forced 
to  yield  and  recognize  their  claims.  Gerson  was 
no  longer  living  to  control  them,  but  their  history 
is  that  of  a  final  testimony  about  the  Paparchy. 
And  praiseworthy,  so  far  as  they  went,  were  their 
tokens  of  better  feeling  towards  the  Hussites,  to 
whom  they  restored  the  communion  in  both  kinds, 
reversing  what  was  done  at  Constance.  The  chal- 
1  December  14,  1431. 


276      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

ice  thus  restored  gave  the  adherents  of  Huss  the 
reputable  name  of  Calixtines.  This  was  an  entire 
overruling  of  Martin,  who  had  only  preached  in 
the  spirit  of  Innocent  III.,  a  crusade  of  extermina- 
tion against  the  Hussites.  But  all  too  late  !  There 
was  no  John  Huss  to  guide  his  friends  and  to  give 
this  Council  a  truly  primitive  character.  The  book 
of  life  was  shut ;  the  seals  were  to  be  broken  in 
another  generation,  but  only  to  disclose  thunder- 
ings  and  voices.  A  Titanic  avenger  was  to  ride  on 
the  whirlwind,  but  he  was  wholly  unable  to  direct 
the  storm;  and  they  who  had  burned  Huss  and 
Jerome,  and  strewn  the  ashes  of  Wiclif,  were  chas- 
tised by  Luther  first,  and  then  given  over  to  the 
oligarchy  of  Laynez  the  Jesuit.  Either  extreme 
was  abhorrent  to  the  doctors  of  Constance  and  of 
Basle ;  but  their  fatal  compromises  were  the  crea- 
tors of  both  alike.  Luther's  agitations  crossed  the 
Alps,  and  at  one  time  had  begun  to  work  under 
the  eaves  of  the  Vatican  itself;  but  when  this  last 
menace  was  disregarded,  there  was  nothing  left  to 
Rome  but  an  absolute  surrender  to  the  Society 
of  Loyola.  These  ate  the  oyster  and  awarded  the 
shells.  They  assumed  to  themselves  all  the  su- 
premacy which  Basle  had  claimed  for  a  General 
Council,  and  to  the  Pope  they  conceded  only  the 
homage  of  doing  everything  in  his  name. 

19.     TWO    POINTS    SET   RIGHT. 

Perhaps  I  have  sufficiently  illustrated  my  points, 
as  to  the  Anglican  Restoration  and  the  "  Reforma- 
tion "  of  Luther.     (1.)  The  Anglican  work  begun 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      2JJ 

and  was  wrought  from  within,  —  begun  under  Wic- 
lif,  who  only  brought  to  a  focus  what  had  been 
continuously  maintained  by  Anglican  witnesses, 
from  the  Norman  invasion  onward,  and  what  was 
resumed,  and  brought  to  the  issue  of  a  restored 
autonomy,  under  Henry,  and  Edward,  his  son. 
(2.)  The  German  Reformers  lighted  their  candle 
from  England ;  there  could  have  been  no  Luther 
but  for  Huss  and  Jerome,  the  disciples  of  Wiclif. 
How  absurd  and  illogical,  therefore,  is  the  conven- 
tional instruction  of  our  school  histories,  and  even 
of  Church  historians,  who  treat  of  our  Anglican 
Reformation  as  if  it  began  with  Luther's  burning 
of  the  Pope's  bull !  They  make  it  an  importa- 
tion from  Germany,  if  not  from  the  Diet  of  Spires, 
where  the  Lutherans  were  called  Protestants.  Let 
those  admire  a  feeble  and  impotent  name  of  ne- 
gation and  discord  who  can  possibly  do  so;  but 
the  reader  of  Kahnis  must  exclaim,  — 

"  Can  aught  exult  in  its  deformity?  " 

20.     POLITICAL   PROTESTANTISM. 

But  let  us  not  fall  into  vulgar  mistakes  about 
the  Protestants.  As  a  political  cause,  my  sym- 
pathies are  with  the  Protestant  heroes  and  suffer- 
ers. Theologically,  I  cannot  go  with  them,  although 
the  worst  mistakes  of  Calvin  and  Luther  are  venial 
as  compared  with  the  Council  of  Trent,  its  mon- 
strous "  Code  of  Belief,"  and  its  daring  dictation 
to  Christendom  of  a  new  Creed,  equalizing  the 
mere  novelties  of  Pius  IV.  with  the  Nicene  sym- 
bol, making  it  more  practically  the  Creed,  and  not 


278        INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

less  essential  to  salvation.  In  the  conflicts  and 
wars  it  generated,  my  heart  is  with  the  lost  cause 
of  the  Calixtines  and  the  Huguenots.  I  had  rather 
be  with  the  poor  "  winter-king  "  of  Bohemia,  than 
with  Louis  XIV.  ravaging  the  Palatinate,  deso- 
lating the  Rhineland,  and  revoking  the  Edict  of 
Nantes.  Yes,  and  who  would  not  choose  death 
with  Coligny,  rather  than  share  with  Catherine  de 
Medicis  and  the  pontiff  that  awful  account  with 
God  for  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  day? 
To  come  nearer  to  our  own  times,  recall  the  sor- 
rows and  sufferings  of  the  godly  Jansenists,  the 
nuns  of  Port  Royal  dragged  out  of  their  graves, 
like  Wiclif,  and  their  chaste  bodies  exposed  to  the 
worst  indignities,  while  their  very  roof  was  torn 
away  from  the  heads  of  the  survivors,  their  walls 
levelled,  and  their  names  covered  with  anathemas. 
Gracious  Lord  !  that  a  Church  should  call  itself 
"  Catholic  "  which  was  too  narrow  for  a  Pascal,  an 
Arnauld,  a  Nicole,  —  nay,  too  narrow  for  Bossuet 
and  the  old  Gallicans,  whose  condemnation  at  the 
late  Vatican  conventicle  was  as  real  as  that  of 
Wiclif  at  Constance,  and  whose  bones  would  just 
as  certainly  be  exhumed  and  cremated,  were  it 
possible  just  now  to  execute  such  an  auto-da-fe  in 
Republican  France. 

2i.     REFLECTIONS. 

Let  me  pause  a  moment  for  a  reflection.  It 
has  often  struck  you,  perhaps,  as  I  have  had  to 
recount  the  history  of  events  that  disgrace  our 
holy  religion,  to  ask,   "  Where   is  the    religion  of 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      2J() 

Christ,  and  what  is  it  doing  for  the  world  in  times 
like  these?  "  This  anxious  inquiry  was  anticipated 
and  answered  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  when  He  said, 
"  Nevertheless  the  foundation  of  God  standcth  sure, 
having  this  seal,  —  the  Lord  knowetli  them  that  are 
His."  In  every  age,  it  is  evil  that  forces  itself 
on  the  sight;  it  is  the  worst  of  men  that  make 
themselves  seen  and  heard.  But  always,  if  there 
are  such  as  Judas,  there  are  such  as  Stephen ;  if 
there  are  persecutors,  there  are  heroes ;  if  there 
are  murderers,  there  are  martyrs.  Meantime, 
thousands  of  humble  and  holy  men  and  women, 
humble-minded  peasants  and  Christian  children, 
are  living  the  life  of  faith  and  love,  and  dying  the 
death  of  saints,  unnumbered  and  unknown.  The 
great  prophet  supposed  that  he  alone  was  left  in 
Israel,  a  true  worshipper ;  but  the  Lord  said  there 
were  seven  thousand  besides  him  that  had  not 
"  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal."  Even  in  the  days  of 
Annas  and  Caiaphas,  there  were  such  priests  as 
Zacharias  and  Simeon  ;  such  holy  women  as  Eliza- 
beth and  Anna;  such  "Israelites  indeed"  as  Na- 
thanael.  Let  us  be  sure  that  in  the  dark  places 
of  earth,  as  now,  so  always,  God  has  had  his  hid- 
den saints,  who  have  not  been  hid  from  Him,  and 
whose  faith  overcame  the  world. 

Then,  as  to  the  vulgar  mistakes  about  Calvin 
and  Luther.  Giants  they  were  indeed  in  those 
days;  Scholastics  even  when  they  quarrelled  with 
Scholastics,  and  their  worst  errors  came  from  the 
Scholastics.  Such  were  Calvin's  presbyterianism 
and  the  reactionary  ideas  of  Luther,  that  made 
Solifidianism.       Calvin's    predestinarianism   had  a 


280       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

similar  origin,  and  his  terrible  logic  about  infant 
damnation  is  Scholasticism,  which  is  now  hardened 
into  creed  by  Rome  itself  in  its  Trent  theology. 
I  must  own  that  the  spirit  of  Melanchthon  is  that 
with  which  I  find  my  own  heart  entwined,  almost 
exclusively,  when  I  study  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion. Erasmus  might  possibly  have  renewed  the 
influence  of  Huss,  and  directed  the  movement  on 
the  Continent,  had  he  been  more  in  earnest,  less 
fond  of  his  jokes,  and  less  afraid  of  the  stake.  He 
had  not  taken  his  ideas  from  Wiclif ;  he  was  rather 
a  pupil  of  Gerson,  and  the  arrogant  dictation  of 
that  "  pope  in  the  bosom  "  which  Luther  owned  he 
carried,  made  Erasmus  recoil. 

At  intervals  the  influence  of  this  new  class  of 
reformers  was  felt  in  our  affairs.  The  floods  of 
Continental  violence  rolled  like  a  tidal  wave  against 
the  fast-anchored  Church  and  isle  of  England. 
Here  and  there  are  holes  which  it  gnawed  and 
fissures  which  it  opened,  but  our  rock  threw  back 
the  broken  billow  and  repelled  it  as  from  a  for- 
tress of  adamant.  Had  the  counsels  of  Gerson 
prevailed  in  England,  our  fate  would  have  been 
involved  with  the  Continental  Reformation ;  or 
else  we  should  have  been  swallowed  up  by  Trent. 
See  how  the  Inquisition  and  the  extinction  of 
the  old  Mozarabic  spirit  of  freedom  has  brought 
down  what  was  the  greatest  of  kingdoms,  imperial 
Spain,  to  the  dust.  From  all  this,  the  Lord  deliv- 
ered us.  England  was  not  swamped  in  the  Protes- 
tant marsh  of  sect  and  schism.  She  escaped 
the  net  of  the  Jesuits  at  Trent.  She  became  the 
most  Catholic  Church  in  Christendom. 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      28 1 

22.     RECENT   REACTION. 

Our  own  time  has  seen  a  revolt  in  England 
alike  against  reason  and  Holy  Scripture  and  the 
Providence  of  God.  Men  who  owe  all  that  gives 
them  weight  and  influence  with  contemporaries 
to  their  training  in  the  Church  of  England,  and 
to  the  moral  nutriment  they  drew  from  her  ma- 
ternal breasts,  have  ungratefully  "lifted  up  their 
heel  against  her."  It  is  the  greatest  scandal  of 
an  enlightened  age;  it  is  an  indictment  of  human 
nature  itself  in  its  better  estate.  In  the  name  of 
common  sense,  what  is  it  they  would  have,  when 
they  regret  the  Anglican  restoration?  Do  they 
regret  the  death  of  Mary,  and  wish  the  Spanish 
Armada  had  restored  her  reign  of  blood,  set  up 
the  Inquisition,  and  done  for  England  what  Alva 
did  in  the  Netherlands?  Do  they  grieve  in  their 
hearts  for  the  failure  of  the  last  Stuart  to  restore 
the  Paparchy?  Can  they  then  lament  for  him 
whose  treachery  insured  the  ruin  of  the  dynasty, 
from  which  Charles  I.  prophetically  withdrew  his 
blessing  in  case  it  should  ever  depart  from  the 
teachings  of  Hooker  *  and  the  catholicity  of  the 
Church  of  England?  Again  I  ask,  What  would 
they  have  instead  of  the  blessings  our  race  has  in- 
herited from  the  Marian  martyrs,  and  which  have 
made  us  the  envy  of  the  world?  Had  England 
copied  Spain,  would  that  have  been  wisdom? 
or  France,  in  her  half-reforms?  Look  at  the 
Spain  of  to-day  and  the  France  of  the  last  hun- 
dred years.  Is  there  more  of  the  Gospel  in  these 
1  See  Note  Y". 


282       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

countries,  or  in  Italy,  fast  by  the  Papal  throne, 
than  in  England,  with  all  her  faults?  Oh!  it  is 
in  the  "  States  of  the  Church,"  I  suppose,  blotted 
out  from  the  map  of  Europe  by  an  indignant  civ- 
ilization, that  we  lost  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
when  it  "came  nigh"  unto  men!  Is  it  such  a 
Sardis  they  would  make  the  soul  and  centre  of 
English  Law  and  Gospel  for  all  generations?  But 
enough!  "Let  them  alone,"  —  as  Scripture  said 
of  one  joined  to  his  idols.  Let  us  go  on  to  secure 
to  children's  children  the  inestimable  blessings 
they  are  too  besotted  to  understand,  too  ungrateful 
to  enjoy. 

23.     THE  CONTRAST. 

And  if  we  would  estimate  aright  the  difference 
between  a  Catholic  Restoration  and  a  Protestant 
Reformation,  let  us  know  them  by  their  fruits. 
The  difference  was  radical,  at  the  outset,  as  I 
have  shown :  Scripture  and  antiquity  inspired  the 
one  and  governed  it;  the  other  risked  all  upon 
Scholastic  theologies.  Now,  I  do  not  like  to  speak 
unkindly  of  our  Christian  brethren  in  Germany  and 
Switzerland,  and  therefore  I  shall  merely  refer  you 
to  authorities  for  light  upon  the  subject.  Ranke 
will  show  you  how  it  came  to  pass  that  popes  re- 
gained nearly  half  of  all  that  they  had  lost,  and 
Kahnis,  that  excellent  Lutheran  of  our  own  times, 
will  tell  you  more  than  I  care  to  recall  of  the  his- 
tory of  German  Protestantism  in  its  operations  upon 
mind  and  heart,  and  in  its  destructive  work  upon 
national  churches.    On  the  other  hand,  look  at  our 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      283 

mother  Church  of  England  !  "  There  she  stands," 
—  poor  as  the  second  temple  compared  with  the 
first,  if  we  contrast  her  with  the  pattern  in  the 
mount,  but,  in  spite  of  all,  "beautiful  for  situation," 
and  fast  making  herself  "  the  joy  of  the  whole 
earth."  See  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  her,  in 
these  latter  days  !  Look  at  her  daughter  Church 
in  these  States,  and  at  her  colonial  children.  The 
Romish  missions  were  vigorously  prosecuted,  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Propaganda:  look  at  them!  Look  at 
Mexico,  and  Hayti,  and  Brazil !  We  find  a  par- 
allel to  that  which  Christ  himself  rebuked,  when  he 
cried  woe  to  those  who  "  compassed  sea  and  land 
to  make  one  proselyte."  To  England,  in  another 
sense,  and  for  different  ends,  God  has  said,  "  Pos- 
sess thou  the  east  and  the  west."  Yes,  truly,  "  her 
sound  has  gone  forth  into  all  lands,  her  words  to  the 
ends  of  the  world."  And  where  does  she  stand  as 
related  to  her  fellow  Christians,  alike  Protestants 
and  Romanized  Latins?  I  appeal  to  one  of  her 
most  persistent  adversaries,  to  the  Ultramontanist 
De  Maistre.  After  all  he  can  say  against  her,  yet 
he  allows,  "  She  is  most  precious"  If  ever  Chris- 
tendom is  to  be  reunited,  he  thinks  the  movement 
must  proceed  from  her.  He  recognizes  her  as  the 
mediatrix  who  can  lay  her  hands  upon  both  par- 
ties ;  for,  as  he  says,  "  with  one  hand  she  touches 
us  (Roman  Catholics),  and  with  the  other  the  Prot- 
estants." If  this  be  her  mission,  as  De  Maistre 
supposes,  "  truly  she  is  most  precious."  He  owns 
the  truth,  at  last,  which  Rome  has  so  perversely 
tried  for  centuries  to  gainsay.1 
1  See  Note  }'" ■ 


284      INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

24.     THE  FALL  OF  THE  PAPAL  THRONE. 

Even  Laynez  could  not  have  conceived  of  the 
ultimate  results  of  the  mastery  he  gained  for  his 
Society  at  the  Council  of  Trent.  In  that  Council 
his  manipulations  subverted  the  Latin  Episcopate, 
reducing  it  to  a  mere  Papal  Vicariate :  his  policy 
has  since  reduced  the  Papacy  itself  to  a  mere  mask 
for  the  "  black  pope,"  the  General  of  the  Jesuits, 
the  autocrat  of  the  "  Roman  Catholic  "  world.  The 
rod  of  its  nominal  despot  is  really  held  by  him ; 
his  military  forces  submit  with  the  "  passivity  of  a 
corpse,"  and  obey  with  the  activity  of  Napoleon's 
flying  artillery.  The  pontiff,  be  it  Pius  IV.  or  be 
it  Pius  IX.,  is  merely  a  voice  to  send  forth  the  ora- 
cles of  the  Society.  But  by  its  fatal  blunder,  when 
it  bolstered  up  the  feeble  Pio  Nono  to  issue  his 
late  decrees,  it  committed  the  Roman  system  to  an 
irreparable  breach  with  all  antiquity,  and  the  end 
is  not  yet.  It  dealt  a  death-blow  to  Gallicanism, 
which  can  no  longer  exist  in  communion  with  the 
Papacy,  but  its  sting  was  like  that  of  the  serpent 
which  strikes  venom  into  its  victim  with  a  fury  that 
destroys  itself. 

At  that  same  moment  when  in  his  "  Synod  of 
Sacristans,"  amid  darkness  that  might  be  felt,  amid 
thunders  and  lightnings  that  made  the  foundations 
shake  around  him,  the  pontiff  proclaimed  himself 
Infallible,  there  went  forth  a  voice,  "  yea,  and  that 
a  mighty  voice,"  which  instantly  took  effect.  His 
last  temporal  support  perished  at  Sedan ;  and  the 
temporal  royalties  of  the  Papacy  perished  with  it. 
The  voice  said,  "  Remove  the  diadem  and  take  off 


A    CATHOLIC   VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      285 

the  crown ;  .  .  .  exalt  him  that  is  low,  and  abase 
him  that  is  high."  Men  fail  to  see  the  meaning  of 
contemporary  events,  because  they  read  not  his- 
tory, nor  the  word  of  God.  But  it  is  a  great  thing 
to  be  alive  when  so  quietly,  and  by  means  appar- 
ently so  insignificant  as  the  red  shirt  of  Garibaldi, 
is  wrought  a  change  that  Emperors  and  nations 
have  struggled  for  in  vain.  Since  Pepin  gave  the 
Exarchate  of  Ravenna  to  the  Roman  patriarch,  in 
A.  D.  754,  the  Bishops  of  Rome  have  been  "  princes 
of  this  world."  The  fall  of  the  "  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire," under  Napoleon,  carried  this  logically  with 
it,  but  "  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly."  We  have 
seen  a  consummation  which  may  be  momentarily 
defeated  by  diplomacy,  but  the  thunderbolt  has 
fallen.  For  the  first  time  in  a  thousand  years,  not 
a  single  power  in  Europe  is  identified  with  the 
Papacy.  The  Syllabus  has  made  it  impossible  for 
kings  and  peoples  to  submit  to  its  yoke.  The 
"  Old  Catholics  "  may  seem  a  feeble  folk,  but  the 
testimony  of  Dollinger  and  his  noble  allies  is  as 
imperishable  as  that  of  Wiclif.  You,  young  gen- 
tlemen, may  live  to  see  fresh  struggles  for  Ultra- 
montane supremacy,  but  the  issue  is  inevitable. 
An  epoch  of  prophecy  has  been  signalized :  a  new 
era  begins  with  hope. 

25.     SURVEY   OF  CHRISTENDOM. 

The  present  aspects  of  Christendom  I  venture 
to  suppose  are  hopeful,  and  give  blessed  promise 
of  reconstruction.  The  signs  of  the  times  point  to 
the  speedy  overthrow  of  Islam  in  Europe,  and  the 


286       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

Patriarchate  of  New  Rome  is  rising  into  importance 
with  the  gradual  increase  of  learning  and  piety  in 
Russia.  Such  a  theologian  as  Bishop  Macarius 
of  Vinnitza  assures  us  that  the  study  of  the  Greek 
Fathers  must  soon  bear  fruits  of  reformation 
throughout  the  ancient  churches  of  the  East.  A 
Russian  diplomatist1  remarked  to  me  not  long  ago, 
that  the  theologians  of  St.  Petersburg,  over  whom 
Macarius  presides,  were  now  the  only  Russians  who 
could  even  appreciate  the  Anglican  doctors ;  but, 
said  he,  "  we  are  educating  a  new  class  for  the 
future."  He  had  recently  visited  England,  and  he 
said,  "  There  is  no  church  equal  to  the  Anglicans 
for  learning  and  character ;  every  parish  priest  has 
scholarship  enough  for  a  bishop."  But  the  Russian 
Church  is  not  sterile.  She  has  studded  Northern 
Asia  with  missions ;  they  stretch  to  our  own  Alaska, 
by  the  Aleutian  Isles.  I  have  had  Bishop  Nestor 
of  Alaska  at  my  table,  as  my  guest.  The  Holy 
Ghost  is  moving  the  hearts  of  fathers  to  children, 
and  of  children  to  their  fathers,  everywhere  where 
the  Nicene  Council  and  its  "  ancient  usages  "  are 
revered  and  maintained. 

26.     NICENE   CONSTITUTIONS    IMPERISHABLE. 

For  the  Nicene  Unity  of  Christendom  is  im- 
perishable, and  God  has  protected  it  everywhere 
among  the  nations.  By  its  canon  of  threefold 
concurrence  in  ordinations,  the  historic  episcopate 
is  woven  into  a  net-work,  instead  of  drawn  out 
in  a  chain  where  one  broken  link  ruins  all.     It  is 

1  Prince  Orloff,  late  Russian  Ambassador  in  Paris,  A.  D.  1877. 


A    CATHOLIC   VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      287 

impossible  that  the  Apostolic  Succession  should 
fail  where  this  law  is  observed.  So  the  canon  of 
Holy  Scripture  and  its  sacred  text  have  been 
maintained  and  preserved.  The  Nicene  Creed 
is  thus  perpetuated,  and  the  Christian  year  is 
guarded  by  the  Paschal  Canons  of  the  Council. 
Thus,  and  by  other  providential  contrivances,  it 
is  a  most  striking  fact,  that  organic  unity  has  been 
maintained  even  where  functional  unity  is  lost. 
There  is  a  fundamental  Unity,  and  all  men  see  it, 
between  Greek  and  Latin  and  Anglican  Christians, 
because  the  Nicene  foundations  alike  underlie 
them  all.  Even  Trent,  though  it  nearly  smothered 
Nicene  vitality  beneath  accumulated  fables,  has 
left  the  old  bases  solid  underneath.  Hence  it  is, 
that,  in  spite  of  new  dogmas  and  of  all  the  Roman 
superstitions,  many  "  Roman  Catholics "  live  on 
the  old  bases,  while  they  outwardly  conform  to 
the  new.  How  I  have  blessed  God,  that  millions 
of  the  peasantry,  nominally  conformed  to  Trent, 
know  very  little  practically  of  its  heresies.  Sim- 
ple folk !  They  know  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and 
have  read  the  Nicene,  and  can  sing  pious  hymns; 
so  that,  like  Goethe's  Gretchen  before  her  fall,  — 
yes,  and  even  when  they  fall,  —  they  love  to  wor- 
ship Christ  and  to  trust  in  him  for  salvation.  Now, 
what  is  held  alike,  and  from  the  beginning,  by 
Greeks  and  Latins  and  Anglicans,  —  that  is  Catho- 
licity, and  in  that  we  all  consent.  The  specialties 
of  each  communion  are  not  Catholic,  and  with 
them  we  are  not  called  to  communion  by  Nicene 
law.  Woe  to  those  who  erect  local  and  pro- 
vincial   specialties  into  articles  of  faith,  and  cast 


288       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

out  brethren  for  not  accepting  them.  We  appeal 
against  Diotrephes  to  the  Common  Judge,  "  but 
when  they  curse,  we  bless."  That  Church  which 
refrains  from  narrowing  the  limits  of  Catholic  com- 
munion, and  includes  all  who  would  have  been 
included  at  Nicaea,  is  therefore  the  most  truly 
Catholic.     Where  is  it  found?     Judge  ye. 

27.     PRACTICAL    UNITIES. 

Our  Anglican  desire  for  Unity  is  no  ambitious 
longing  for  "  lordship  over  God's  heritage."  It  is 
pure  and  "  unfeigned  love  of  the  brethren "  for 
Christ's  sake.  Leaving  Him  to  be  the  only  um- 
pire and  judge,  I  have  enjoyed  through  a  long 
life  the  Unity  I  have  illustrated,  in  practical 
ways,  among  foreign  churches,  "  no  man  for- 
bidding me."  The  Catholic  spirit  renders  it 
impossible  to  wear  the  fetters  of  a  sect.  Only 
less  does  it  forbid  a  life  virtually  sectarian, 
which  is  cooped  up  in  one's  local  or  provincial 
church.  The  whole  Church  of  the  Creed  is  ours 
to  live  in.  No  pope  can  hinder  us.  Often  have 
I  knelt  at  the  altar  of  St.  Peter's  in  Rome,  and 
in  almost  all  the  great  cathedrals  of  Europe.  On 
such  occasions  I  have  recited  the  Nicene  Creed, 
and  offered  our  Anglican  prayer  "  for  the  good 
estate  of  the  Catholic  Church."  W'hile  they  have 
mumbled  their  mass  in  an  unknown  tongue,  I  have 
prayed  God  to  accept  what  he  found  acceptable 
in  it,  and  have  read  in  my  prayer-book  the  service 
for  the  day.  This  I  have  done  in  the  chapel  of 
the   great  St.  Bernard,  as  the  sunrise  gilded  the 


A    CATHOLIC   VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      289 

surrounding  pinnacles  of  the  Alps;  and  when 
my  guide  over  the  mountains  knelt  at  a  wayside 
shrine,  I  bowed  myself  before  the  Invisible  God  of 
Catholic  worship,  looking  up  to  the  clear  blue  sky, 
and  begging  the  Lord  to  bless  my  peasant  brother, 
—  mysterious  symbol  of  millions  of  simple  souls, 
who  for  a  thousand  years  have  bowed  down  to 
images,  because  so  willed  the  Empress  Irene. 
Surely  He  who  loved  the  Samaritans  loves  and 
accepts  these  our  brethren,  who  call  upon  Him  out 
of  a  pure  heart,  though  ignorant  and  once  polluted 
perhaps  as  Rahab,  who  was  "justified"  in  spite 
of  her  ignorant  lie.  For  "  Mercy  rejoiceth  against 
judgment."  Among  Christians  of  the  Greek  rite 
I  have  enjoyed  much  closer  and  sweeter  com- 
munion; have  been  received  into  their  chancels, 
as  they  have  been  received  into  ours,  accepting 
their  brotherly  recognitions,  and  uniting  in  such 
portions  of  their  Liturgy  as  are  truly  ancient  and 
Scriptural.  Prematurely,  we  should  not  go  fur- 
ther. The  Holy  Spirit  will  accomplish  the  rest. 
Thank  God,  none  of  the  ancient  churches  have 
lost  the  Truth.  They  have  added  to  it ;  but  the 
line  is  drawn  between  Truth  and  modern  additions. 
In  the  latter  we  have  no  part  nor  lot ;  in  all  that 
is  Catholic  we  are  in  practical  communion  with 
our  brethren  the  Latins  and  the  Greeks. 

28.     THE   PARABLE   OF   PATMOS. 

This  principle  of  Unity  is  given  us  in  the  vis- 
ion of  Patmos,  —  the  Master  amid  the  churches. 
Observe  how  corrupt  were  some  of  the  seven  :  yet, 

19 


29O       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN \  HISTORY. 

so  long  as  he  did  not  destroy  them,  but  patiently- 
awaited  their  return  to  first  faith  and  first  love  and 
first  works,  he  walked  amid  their  golden  candle- 
sticks and  held  their  stars  in  his  right  hand.  So 
He  teaches  us  to  be  in  communion  with  Sardis 
itself,  though  not  with  her  pollutions.  And  when 
we  look  at  home,  well  may  He  ask,  How  are  we 
better  than  others?  Is  not  our  American  church 
a  veritable  Laodicea?  I  think  it  is.  Let  us  "  anoint 
our  eyes  with  eye-salve,"  that  we  may  see  our- 
selves as  the  Master  sees  us.  We  have  no  occa- 
sion to  be  proud.  Many  of  our  fellow  Christians 
surpass  us  in  good  works,  and  set  us  an  example 
that  ought  to  make  us  ashamed.  That  is  a  rebuke 
to  us,  but  it  does  not  alter  the  facts,  nor  diminish 
our  privileges.  The  good  Samaritan  was  a  rebuke 
to  priest  and  Levite ;  but,  none  the  less,  the  priests 
and  Levites  were  God's  ordinance  and  "  salvation 
was  of  the  Jews."  It  is  our  own  fault,  if  in  this 
dear  Church  we  fail  to  learn  lessons  of  piety  from 
all  Christians,  and  to  "  go  and  do  likewise."  But 
look  every  man  to  his  own  duty,  and  despise  not 
others.  Bearing  in  mind  that  the  great  thing  is 
"  love  to  God  and  man,"  give  me  leave  to  love 
also  the  precious  Church  of  my  fathers,  in  which, 
emancipated  from  such  trammels  as  sects  impose, 
I  live  in  all  the  Christian  churches  and  in  all  the 
Christian  ages ;  read  the  Fathers  as  my  fathers ; 
keep  the  Christian  feasts,  and  travel  through  all 
the  Christian  year,  in  sweetest  sympathy  and  en- 
nobling communion  with  "  the  past,  the  distant, 
and  the  future."  No  man  can  rob  a  Catholic  of 
this  gift  of  God,  this  life  in  the  universe,  this  ex- 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      29 1 

pansion  of  heart  and  mind  and  soul  to  the  Catholic 
thought  of  which  God  is  the  author.  It  is  high  as 
heaven,  and  deep  as  Hades ;  it  lifts  us  to  the  heav- 
enly choir;  it  unites  us  with  all  who  "  sleep  in  the 
Lord  Jesus."  Oh  how  blessed  the  privilege  of 
him  who  can  say  with  the  saintly  Bishop  Ken,  "  I 
live  and  die  in  the  communion  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  as  it  was  before  the  disunion  of  East  and 
West,  and  as  it  stands  distinguished  from  all  Puri- 
tan or  Papal  innovations  "  ! 

29.     PERILS   OF  THE   REPUBLIC. 

Young  gentlemen,  your  attention  has  been  di- 
rected to  the  solvent  operation  of  sect,  and  to  the 
corrosive  action  of  the  Trent  religion,  especially  as 
the  virulence  of  its  corruptions  has  been  concen- 
trated in  the  monstrous  moral  system  of  Liguori. 
In  our  dear  country  both  these  classes  of  peril 
are  terribly  active,  and  the  worst  of  the  evil  is 
that  practically  they  work  together.  Sectarianism 
makes  fuel  for  Romanism ;  Loyola  triumphed  in 
Germany  wherever  Luther  and  Calvin  had  created 
sectarian  divisions.1  To  the  ignorant  and  the  in- 
different Rome  makes  an  appeal  which  Sectarian- 
ism knows  not  how  to  meet,  and  to  which  it  lends 
apparent  force.  "  Look,"  says  the  Jesuit,  "  at 
these  religions  of  yesterday,  all  the  fragmentary 
creations  of  Protestantism,  all  wrangling  among 
themselves,  and  all  united  only  in  a  negative 
antagonism  to  Rome,  which  has  no  positive  char- 
acter or  base.  Here,  on  the  other  hand,  is  that 
1  See  Note  K"'. 


292       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

which  they  agree  to  vilify  and  disparage,  the  old 
Mother  of  all  Christians,  the  Church  of  Peter,  the 
one  only  Church  of  Scripture  and  the  Creeds." 
Our  popular  journalism  proceeds  on  this  theory  in 
fawning  upon  Rome  for  political  purposes,  and  the 
popular  mind  falls  into  the  trap.  The  trap  is  con- 
structed by  Sectarianism  itself,  which  calls  Rome 
"  the  Catholic  Church,"  "  the  old  religion,"  "  the 
oldest  of  the  churches,"  and  so  on, — which  repeats 
with  relish  Rome's  insults  to  Anglicans,  calls  ours 
the  "  Church  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  creature  of  the 
English  Parliament,"  and  the  feeble  offspring  of 
Luther's  great  movement  in  Germany,  or  whatever 
else  a  Jesuit  may  dictate  against  us.  Now,  in  a 
republic  dependent  upon  popular  intelligence  and 
national  morality,  it  is  impossible  that  such  ele- 
ments of  mischief  should  co-operate  for  the  con- 
fusion of  ideas  in  religion,  without  undermining 
all  that  rests  upon  religion  and  upon  truth.  The 
rapid  decay  of  American  institutions  is  threatened 
from  the  combined  forces  of  Sectarianism  and 
Ultramontanism,  working  together  as  they  have 
been  working  in  Germany  and  France  towards  a 
general  downfall  into  irreligion,  unbelief,  atheism. 
The  perils  assailing  us  are  such  as  they  who  framed 
our  Constitution  never  anticipated.  The  popular 
religion,  with  all  its  good,  is  yet  a  solvent,  and  op- 
erates to  destroy.  But  home-bred  evils  are  aggra- 
vated beyond  all  computation  by  an  ignorant  and 
vicious  and  pauperized  immigration,  which  pours 
in  upon  us  like  a  deluge.  If  these  poor  waifs  and 
outcasts  of  Europe  came  here  as  regiments,  and 
were  landed  daily  with  bayonets  in  their    hands, 


A    CATHOLIC   VIE IV  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      293 

we  should  confront  them  and  repel  the  invasion. 
But  they  come  in  stealthily,  and  we  ourselves  put 
arms  in  their  hands  far  more  terrible  as  they  use 
them  than  would  be  cold  steel  or  gunpowder. 
We  give  them  the  ballot ;  they  hold  the  balance  of 
power;  and  demagogues  make  them  the  arbiters 
of  our  destinies.  They  may  soon  overthrow  our 
schools ;  they  have  already  thrown  out  of  them 
the  Holy  Bible  ;  they  grasp  our  taxes,  with  insatia- 
ble rapacity,  to  endow  their  own  schools,  disguised 
as  protectories  and  hospitals,  or  other  institutions 
of  charity.  In  Protestant  Upper  Canada  they  are  a 
minority;  but  by  the  game  of  demagogues  they 
have  overcome  the  tax-payers  and  dictate  their 
own  terms  to  the  government. 


30.     THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   FORCES   OF   THE    AMERI- 
CAN  CHURCH. 

Now,  I  must  be  permitted  to  express  my  con- 
victions, resting  on  no  superficial  base,  that  the 
Church  which  is  entwined  with  the  entire  history 
of  our  race,  with  the  growth  of  which  is  bound 
up  the  common  law,  which  reflects  the  genius  of 
our  literature  and  embodies  the  principles  out  of 
which  has  risen  our  national  Constitution,  —  that 
such  a  Church  has  in  herself  those  conservative 
elements  and  constructive  forces  which  are  just 
what  our  national  fabric  requires.  In  everything 
else  that  is  called  American,  the  centrifugal  force 
predominates  :  what  we  need  is  the  balancing 
force  that  generates  an  orbit,  and  holds  us  to  the 
light  and  heat  of  the  sun.     Macaulay  very  justly 


294       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

reflects    upon  Jefferson  for   introducing    into  our 
system  an  element  which  gives  too  much  to  the 
passions  of  the  multitude,  unrestrained  and  unedu- 
cated to  obey  the  law.1     Macaulay  ought  to  know, 
for  he  did  all  he  could  to  introduce  the  same  ele- 
ment into  England.     But  he  saw  from  a  distance 
what   he    could    not  discover   at   home :    he    re- 
proached our  system  as  spreading  all  sail  and  pro- 
viding no  ballast.     We  fly  before  the  wind,  but  we 
are  wholly  unprepared  for  the  gale.     Happily,  we 
have  resources.     The  colossal  character  of  Wash- 
ington, the  Alfred  of  the  New  World,  has  provided 
us  with  maxims  and  with  examples  to  which  our 
youth  may  be   profitably  pointed.     He  gave  our 
Constitution   a   religious  character  when   he  took 
the  first  oath  to  support  it  in  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent.    He  reverently  bowed  down  and  kissed  the 
Bible,  and  then,  with  all  the  retinue  of  Congress 
and  officials,  he  went  to  St.  Paul's,  and  began  his 
own  and  the  national  career  in  offices  of  worship 
and  prayer.     Now,  if  we  study  this  great  exam- 
ple of  the  true  American,  we  find  in  it,  whatever 
his   faults,   a  certain  harmony  and  proportion   of 
qualities  which  are  only  rarely  developed  in  the 
narrowness    of  sectarian    education.      A    class  of 
Christian  laymen  has  been  generated  in  the  Angli- 
can communion,  through  successive  ages,  possess- 
ing a  certain  family  likeness,  which  is  recognized 
in  all  their  varieties  of  station  and  manner  of  life. 
Not  to   go    further  back,  take  the    poet  Spenser 
and  Sir  Philip    Sidney,  —  take  Raleigh,    and  Sir 
Henry  Wotton,  and  Hyde,  and  Falkland,  and  John 
1  See  Note  V". 


A    CATHOLIC    VIEW  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      295 

Evelyn,  and  Izaak  Walton,  and  Boyle,  and  Addi- 
son, and  Burke,  and  Johnson,  and  Cowper,  and 
Wilberforce,  and  others,  whose  very  names  are 
lessons,  —  such  are  the  characters  we  need  in 
the  Republic.  Such  were  our  own  John  Jay,  and 
many  of  our  most  eminent  countrymen.  It  has 
been,  over  and  over  again,  asserted  by  critics  and 
orators,  that  Washington's  character  was  formed 
by  his  mother,  by  the  catechism  she  taught  him, 
the  books  she  read  to  him  on  the  day  of  the  Lord, 
and  the  habits  to  which  she  trained  him  as  a 
young  Christian.  It  is  true  in  a  larger  sense  that 
he  owed  this  to  his  mother,  —  to  his  mother's 
mother,  the  Anglican  Church.  Well  has  De  Mais- 
tre  said,  "  She  is  most  precious,"  —  most  precious 
to  our  country,  so  long  as  she  preserves  her  salt. 
If  that  should  "  lose  its  savour,"  and  cease  to 
season  our  social  and  civil  estate,  I  doubt  not  we 
shall  speedily  perish. 

31.    AN  APPEAL  TO   YOUTH. 

In  such  a  great  and  marvellous  country,  and  at 
a  most  trying  crisis,  you,  my  dear  young  friends, 
are  about  to  enter  upon  life.  In  former  lectures  I 
have  invited  you  to  claim  for  yourselves  a  noble 
mission,  and  to  let  God  mark  out  for  you  a  career 
of  usefulness  and  of  duty.  I  reminded  you,  at  the 
outset,1  that  your  mark  is  to  be  made  upon  the 
beginnings  of  another  century.  The  era  is  out- 
growing its  teens ;  there  is  solemnity  in  the  very 
sound  of  the  Twentieth  Century,  with  which  you 
1  Lecture  I.,  §  4,  page  i~. 


296       INSTITUTES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY. 

are  to  be  identified.  You  have  yet  a  few  years  to 
prepare  for  it :  avoid  American  hurry,  and  give 
those  years  to  thorough  study,  that  you  may  enter 
upon  your  maturity  and  your  allotted  work  with 
the  thoroughly  furnished  mind  which  is  the  secret 
of  power  and  mastery.  Beware  of  shiftless  means 
and  irresolute  aims.  Beware  of  the  sort  of  life 
epitomized  by  Dr.  Young:  — 

"  At  thirty  man  suspects  himself  a  fool ; 
Knows  it  at  forty,  and  reforms  his  plan  ; 
At  fifty  chides  his  infamous  delay  ; 
Pushes  his  prudent  purpose  to  resolve  ; 
Resolves  and  re-resolves,  then  dies  the  same." 

If,  in  directing  your  attention  at  this  stage  of  your 
preparation  to  the  ennobling  study  of  history,  I 
have  given  you  any  practical  hints  for  that  pursuit, 
I  am  largely  rewarded  already;  but  far  greater 
will  be  my  reward,  when,  in  later  days,  you  know 
by  experience  the  value  of  what  I  have  taught, 
and  in  those  days  perchance  may  recall  these 
evenings  of  the  "  Hobart  Guild,"  — 

"Remembering  me,  and  these  my  exhortations." 

32.     CONCLUSION. 

Yours  will  then  be  no  share  in  the  remorse  of 
those  who,  having  lived  liked  fools,  come  to  "  die 
as  the  fool  dieth."  The  sickly  whine,  "  Is  life 
worth  living?"  will  have  received  its  answer  in  a 
life  well  spent.  You  will  find  at  least  some  fruits 
of  your  toils  and  efforts  recognized  by  your  fellow 
men  as  wholesome  and  refreshing.  But,  far  better, 
in  your  own  conscience  will  be  your  sweet  reward, 


A    CATHOLIC   VIE W  OF  CHRISTENDOM.      297 

in  the  sense  of  duty  done,  and  a  mission  fulfilled 
through  the  grace  of  God.  "  Is  life  worth  living?" 
No,  gentlemen,  if  by  life  is  meant  the  torpid  exist- 
ence of  the  materialist,  or  the  feverish  excitement 
which  is  called  life  by  the  voluptuary ;  not  if  life 
is  but  groping  in  the  dark,  and  refusing  to  walk  in 
the  light  of  day;  not  if  it  means  drifting  to  and 
fro  without  ballast,  without  rudder,  without  chart 
and  compass,  and  with  no  certain  haven  where 
one  would  be ;  not  if  it  be  "  without  God  in  the 
world  "  and  without  hope  in  death.  But  oh  !  what 
a  gift  is  life  "  that  answers  life's  great  end  "  !  that 
adds  another  to  the  noble  army  of  the  faithful,  by 
whose  testimony  truth  has  been  maintained,  by 
whom  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel  have  been  handed 
down  to  successive  generations,  by  whose  inter- 
cessions the  world  itself  has  been  upheld  !  The 
secret  of  such  a  life  was  found  by  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
when  he  uttered  his  first  Christian  prayer,  "  Lord, 
what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  "  He  has  left  the 
greatest  mark  upon  the  ages  ever  imprinted  by  a 
human  mind  upon  humanity,  and  let  us  be  sure 
that,  in  our  humble  degree,  we  shall  not  fail  to  find 
a  similar  work,  and  to  fulfil  it,  if  we  begin,  in  the 
same  spirit  of  humility  and  self-devotion,  kneeling 
before  Him  who  is  the  Light  of  the  World. 


GENERAL  NOTE. 


To  explain  the  enlightened  plan  and  purpose  of  the  Bishop 
of  Michigan,  in  founding  the  Hobart  Guild  and  the 
Baldwin  Lectures,  it  seems  proper,  in  this  first  volume  of 
the  proposed  series,  to  publish  the  "  Deed  of  Trust,"  almost 
entire.  In  each  subsequent  volume,  it  is  presumed,  a  much 
smaller  extract  will  appear,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases. 

"  SThts  instrument,  made  and  executed  between  Samuel 
Smith  Harris,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  Diocese  of  Michigan,  of  the  city  of  Detroit,  Wayne 
County,  Michigan,  as  party  of  the  first  part,  and  Henry  P. 
Baldwin,  Alonzo  B.  Palmer,  Henry  A.  Hayden,  Sidney  D. 
Miller,  and  Henry  P.  Baldwin,  2d,  of  the  State  of  Michigan, 
Trustees  under  the  trust  created  by  this  instrument,  as  parties 
of  the  second  part,  witnesseth  as  follows  :  — 

"  In  the  year  of  Our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  eighty-five,  the  said  party  of  the  first  part,  moved  by  the 
importance  of  bringing  all  practicable  Christian  influences  to 
bear  upon  the  great  body  of  students  annually  assembled  at 
the  University  of  Michigan,  undertook  to  promote  and  set 
in  operation  a  plan  of  Christian  work  at  said  University, 
and  collected  contributions  for  that  purpose,  of  which  plan 
the  following  outline  is  here  given,  that  is  to  say:  — 

"1.  To  erect  a  building  or  hall  near  the  University,  in 
which  there  should  be  cheerful  parlors,  a  well-equipped 
reading-room,  and  a  lecture-room  where  the  lectures  herein- 
after mentioned  might  be  given  ; 

"  2.  To  endow  a  lectureship  similar  to  the  Bampton  Lec- 
tureship in  England,  for  the  establishment  and  defence  of 


300  GENERAL  NOTE. 

Christian  truth  :  the  lectures  on  such  foundation  to  be  de- 
livered annually  at  Ann  Arbor  by  a  learned  clergyman  or 
other  communicant  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  to 
be  chosen  as  hereinafter  provided  :  such  lectures  to  be  not 
less  than  six  nor  more  than  eight  in  number,  and  to  be  pub- 
lished in  book  form  before  the  income  of  the  fund  shall  be 
paid  to  the  lecturer  ; 

"  3.  To  endow  two  other  lectureships,  one  on  Biblical  Lit- 
erature and  Learning,  and  the  other  on  Christian  Evidences  : 
the  object  of  such  lectureships  to  be  to  provide  for  all  the 
students  who  may  be  willing  to  avail  themselves  of  them  a 
complete  course  of  instruction  in  sacred  learning,  and  in  the 
philosophy  of  right  thinking  and  right  living,  without  which 
no  education  can  justly  be  considered  complete  ; 

"  4.  To  organize  a  society,  to  be  composed  of  the  students 
in  all  classes  and  departments  of  the  University  who  may  be 
members  of  or  attached  to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
of  which  society  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  the  Rector, 
Wardens,  and  Vestrymen  of  St.  Andrew's  Parish,  and  all  the 
Professors  of  the  University  who  are  communicants  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  should  be  members  ex  officio, 
which  society  should  have  the  care  and  management  of  the 
reading-room  and  lecture-room  of  the  hall,  and  of  all  exer- 
cises or  employments  carried  on  therein,  and  should  moreover 
annually  elect  each  of  the  lecturers  herein  before  mentioned, 
upon  the  nomination  of  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese. 

"In  pursuance  of  the  said  plan,  the  said  society  of  students 
and  others  has  been  duly  organized  under  the  name  of  the 
'  Hobart  Guild  of  the  University  of  Michigan ' ;  the  hall 
above  mentioned  has  been  builded  and  called  Hobart  Hall ; 
and  Mr.  Henry  P.  Baldwin  of  Detroit,  Michigan,  and  Sibyl 
A.  Baldwin,  his  wife,  have  given  to  the  said  party  of  the  first 
part  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  for  the  endowment  and 
support  of  the  lectureship  first  hereinbefore  mentioned. 

"  Now  therefore,  I,  the  said  Samuel  Smith  Harris,  Bishop 
as  aforesaid,  do  hereby  give,  grant,  and  transfer  to  the  said 
Henry  P.  Baldwin,  Alonzo  B.  Palmer,  Henry  A.  Hayden, 
Sidney  D.  Miller,  and  Henry  P.  Baldwin,  2d,  Trustees  as 
aforesaid,  the  said  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  to  be  invested 


DEED   OF  TRUST. 


301 


in  good  and  safe  interest-bearing  securities,  the  net  income 
thereof  to  be  paid  and  applied  from  time  to  time  as  herein- 
after provided,  the  said  sum  and  the  income  thereof  to  be 
held  in  trust  for  the  following  uses  :  — 

"I.  The  said  fund  shall  be  known  as  the  Endowment 
Fund  of  the  Baldwin  Lectures. 

"  2.  There  shall  be  chosen  annually  by  the  Hobart  Guild 
of  the  University  of  Michigan,  upon  the  nomination  of  the 
Bishop  of  Michigan,  a  learned  clergyman  or  other  communi- 
cant of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  to  deliver  at  Ann 
Arbor  and  under  the  auspices  of  the  said  Hobart  Guild,  be- 
tween the  Feast  of  St.  Michael  and  All  Angels  and  the  Feast 
of  St.  Thomas,  in  each  year,  not  less  than  six  nor  more  than 
eight  lectures,  for  the  Establishment  and  Defence  of  Christian 
Truth ;  the  said  lectures  to  be  published  in  book  form  by 
Easter  of  the  following  year,  and  to  be  entitled  '  The  Bald- 
win Lectures'  ;  and  there  shall  be  paid  to  the  said  lecturer 
the  income  of  the  said  endowment  fund,  upon  the  delivery  of 
fifty  copies  of  said  lectures  to  the  said  Trustees  or  their 
successors;  the  said  printed  volumes  to  contain,  as  an  extract 
from  this  instrument,  or  in  condensed  form,  a  statement 
of  the  object  and  conditions  of  this  trust." 

Under  this  trust  the  Right  Reverend  Arthur  Cleveland 
Coxe,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Bishop  of  Western  New  York,  was 
appointed  to  deliver  the  Lectures  for  the  year  1886. 

Detroit,  Advent,  18S6. 


NOTES. 


Note  A,  page  21. 

Consult  Dean  Stanley's  "Eastern  Church  "  (Lecture  III. 
p.  113)  on  the  continuous  application  of  the  title  Papa  to 
the  Bishops  of  Alexandria,  down  to  our  times. 

Note  B,  page  21. 

"  The  Rise  of  the  Papal  Power,"  etc.,  by  Robert  Hussey, 
B.  D.  Oxford,  1863.  See  page  48,  on  the  Sardican  Canon, 
but  compare  Littledale's  "Plain  Reasons,"  etc.,  (London, 
1879,)  pp.  120,  121,  where  the  best  and  most  succinct  ac- 
count of  the  matter  is  comprehended  in  a  few  paragraphs. 
Philip  Smith's  "  History,"  etc.,  is  a  truly  valuable  manual, 
and,  if  purged  from  its  ambiguities,  would  be  precisely 
what  I  could  refer  to  as  a  manual  for  my  readers.  But  it 
falls  into  the  old  ruts,  gives  the  "  Popes  "  from  St.  Peter,  and 
credits  St.  Jerome,  apparently,  with  making  Peter  a  pope, 
when  he  only  means  that  Jerome  considers  him  the  first 
bishop  of  the  See  of  Rome,  which  is  of  itself  only  a  par- 
tial truth.  Then  he  says  :  "  This  title  is  used  as  convenient, 
though  it  was  not  appropriated  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  till 
about  A.  D.  500."  It  was  not  so  appropriated  till  a  century 
later:  he  means  that  Western  writers  began  to  speak  of 
"the  Pope"  as  we  speak  of  "the  post-office,"  — meaning 
the  nearest  one  ;  but  in  the  seventh  century  the  West  began 
to  draw  away  from  the  East.  But  why  is  it  "convenient" 
to  mystify  the  student,  and  to  upset  historic  truth,  in  the 
structure  of  a  work  meant  to  give  true  history  ? 


304 


NOTES. 


Note  C,  page  22. 
See  Dean  Milman's  "History  of  Latin  Christianity," 
vol.  i.  pp.  24-30,  where,  mixing  up  some  mere  fictions  with 
a  great  deal  of  truth,  this  author  lays  down  facts  which 
revolutionize  the  entire  scheme  and  structure  of  his  own 
work.  Taking  this  firm  ground  of  fact,  which  he  should 
have  held  impregnable,  he  comes  down  from  the  fortress  and 
drops  into  that  same  "  Serbonian  bog"  which  has  swallowed 
up,  not  merely  armies,  but  nations,  —  I  mean  the  fictions  of 
the  Decretals.  Of  these  he  speaks,  not  forcibly,  but  feebly, 
when  he  comes  to  Nicholas  I.  See  vol.  ii.  p.  303.  On  the 
previous  page  he  recognizes  the  exceptional  character  of  this 
pontiff,  but  fails  to  note  that  even  the  few  facts  he  chronicles 
define  Nicholas  as  the  first  of  the  "  Popes,"  as  that  term  is 
now  understood. 

Note  D,  page  23. 
See  Stanley's  "Eastern  Church,"  p.  16,  Lecture  I.     On 
the  Latin  or  Roman  pretences  to  Catholicity,  see  some  re- 
marks of  Coleridge,  "  Aids  to  Reflection,"  Aphorism  VIII. 
p.  165,  ed.  London,  1859. 

Note  E,  page  24. 
For  lack  of  a  firm  grip  upon  the  true  origin  of  the  Papacy, 
and  because  he  fails  to  note  the  difference  between  the 
Papacy,  as  titular,  and  the  Paparchy,  as  created  by  the 
Decretals  under  Nicholas  and  the  canonist  Gratian,  I  am 
forced,  most  reluctantly,  to  qualify  my  estimate  of  this 
author's  valuable  work.  But  it  is  the  best  we  have  on  the 
subject. 

Note  F,  page  25. 
See  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  Am.  edition,  vol.  ii.  p.  165. 
If  the  history  of  Alexandria  for  the  first  four  centuries 
could  have  been  turned  over  to  Rome,  the  Decretals  would 
not  have  been  needed  by  her  pontiffs.  They  would  have 
appeared  supreme  without  them. 

Note  G,  page  26. 
See  "The  Idea  of  God,"  etc.,  pp.  83-109,  Boston,  1886. 


NOTES.  305 

This  is  a  most  creditable  work,  for  its  author  is  turning  his 
face,  and  not  his  back,  to  the  sun. 

Note  H,  page  28. 
See  as  above.  But  note  the  entire  failure  of  the  author 
to  prove  what  he  assumes,  namely,  that  Augustine  is  antago- 
nistic to  Clement  and  the  Greek  Fathers  ;  which  is  only 
true  as  to  single  statements,  (chiefly  in  treating  of  the  Mani- 
chaean  heresy,)  and  not  as  to  his  system  of  anthropology, 
received  by  the  whole  Church,  in  what  are  called  "the  doc- 
trines of  grace."     See  the  above-mentioned  work,  pp.  94,  95. 

Note  I,  page  30. 
The  present  pontiff  gives  his  subjects  leave  to  think,  but 
only  in  the  formulas  of  Aristotle  and  the  deductions  of  Aqui- 
nas. And  even  Aquinas  is  overruled  in  his  Scriptural  posi- 
tions about  the  Immaculate  Conception,  etc.,  by  the  new 
dogmas  which  Leo  XIII.  accepts  from  his  feeble  predeces- 
sor. He  has  thus  lost  his  great  opportunity  to  qualify  them 
by  such  explanations  as  are  resorted  to,  in  his  obedience,  by 
all  sensible  writers.  Without  such  explanations,  the  chaos 
into  which  they  throw  the  Papal  decrees  and  the  theology  of 
Trent  is  simply  "  confusion  worse  confounded." 

Note  J,  page  31. 

Consult  Gladstone's  "Vatican  Decrees,"  etc.,  Dr.  Schaff's 
edition,  New  York,  1875.  Also,  Mr.  Gladstone's  "Answer  to 
Replies,"  etc.,  New  York,  Harpers,  1875.  Also,  "  The  Vati- 
can Council,"  (containing  the  speech  of  Bishop  Kenrick,  not 
spoken,  but  suppressed  and  subsequently  privately  printed 
by  the  author,)  New  York,  American  Tract  Society,  1875. 
Also,  "Janus,  Pope  and  Council,"  pp.  86-96,  Rivingtons, 
London,  1869. 

Note  K,  page  32. 

See  Bacon's  Works,  vol.  viii.  p.  76  et  seq.,  and  vol.  ix.  pp. 
97-102,  ed.  Boston,  1864.  The  utterance  of  any  new  creed 
was  dogmatically  condemned  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon. 
It  had  been  denounced  by  Canon  previously.  See  this  ably 
demonstrated  by  Ffoulkes,  "  Letter  to  Manning,"  1S69. 

20 


306  NOTES. 

Note  L,  page  33. 
See  Ruskin's  "Bible  of  Amiens,"  p.  41,  ed.  London,  1848. 

Note  M,page  36. 

See  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  viii.  pp.  601-644,  Am. 
edition.  But  here  I  must  enlarge,  for  my  argument  in  these 
Lectures  turns  on  the  fact  that  the  Decretals,  out  of  a  canon- 
ical Patriarchate  and  a  merely  titular  Papacy,  created  the 
Paparchy.  Thus  abolishing  the  Catholic  Constitutions, 
they  mark  Nicholas  I.  as  the  founder  of  the  Papal  System, 
with  the  "  Holy  Roman  Empire  "  as  its  CEcumene.  It  is 
a  Western  fiction  and  a  Western  schism  ;  and  Nicholas  is 
clearly  the  first  "  Pope  "  in  history,  as  we  now  use  that  term. 
I  shall  cite  the  Jesuits  themselves  in  proof. 

In  their  Etudes  Religieuses  (No.  471,  p.  392),  as  quoted  in 
the  original  French  by  Mr.  Ffoulkes,  in  his  Letter  to  Cardinal 
Manning,  written  while  he  was  himself  a  Roman  Catholic, 
they  make  a  candid  statement  which  I  translate  as  follows  : 
"  The  pseudo-Isidorian  reform  (that  of  the  false  Decretals) 
was  good  assuredly,  for  it  was  adopted  by  St.  Nicholas  in 
A.  D.  865,  and  by  the  Eighth  CEctunenical  (Roman,  or  West- 
ern cecumene)  Council  in  A.  D.  870.  It  was  confirmed  by  the 
Council  of  Trent  in  A.  D.  1564,  and  for  nine  centuries  has 
been  the  Common  Law  of  the  Catholic  Church  "  ;  —  i.  e.  the 
Church  which  ceased  to  be  Catholic  by  these  very  acts. 

Here  then  is  the  origin  of  the  Paparchy  in  865,  and  the 
foundation  of  the  existing  "  Roman  Catholic  Church,"  so 
called,  when,  just  seven  hundred  years  after  Nicholas,  adopt- 
ing the  new  creed  of  Pius  IV.  (subsequently  formulated)  they 
made  these  Decretals  the  base  of  another  novel  organization. 

But  let  us  see  what  the  Jesuits  say  further.  Here  is  their 
comment,  recognizing  the  fact  that  Nicholas  revolutionized 
the  West,  and  detached  it  from  the  Catholic  Constitutions. 
They  say:  "  But  the  ancient  discipline  (of  Nicasa  and  the 
great  councils)  was  good  also,  because  for  the  eight  centu- 
ries previous  —  the  Church  had  known  no  other."  Up  to 
that  day,  then,  even  the  titular  "  Popes  "  of  the  West  had 
professed  to  be  subject  to  the  Nicene  Constitutions,  and  to 
be  bound  to  enforce  and  to  obey  them.     These  Jesuits  add, 


NOTES. 


307 


that  "  the  Christian  world  has  been  the  dupe  of  a  mistake  for 
seven  hundred  years  "  ;  that  is,  the  honest  mistake  of  Gratian 
when  he  forced  into  the  Canon  Law  what  was  originally  a 
"premeditated  lie."  It  took  three  centuries  to  turn  it  from 
a  Papal  imposture  into  Western  Law. 

Now,  if  the  Church  of  England  succumbed,  functionally 
but  not  organically,  to  such  an  imposture  for  four  hundred 
years,  what  is  more  evident  than  tne  fact  that  her  Restoration 
to  Catholicity  was  effected,  under  Warham,  when  her  Convo- 
cation with  such  unanimity  rejected  the  false  Canons  and 
reverted  to  the  Nicene  ? 

Note  N,  page  36. 
See  Littledale's  "  Plain  Reasons,"  pp.  178-180.     Bear  in 
mind  that  primacy  is  not  supremacy. 

Note  O,  page  43. 
See  Renan,  "  Les  Apotres,"  etc.,  Paris,  1883,  pp.  216-229, 
and  "  St.  Paul,"  pp.  2,  3,  et  sea. 

Note  P,  page  47. 
See  Juvenal,  Sat.  iii.  62-65,  ar,d  compare  Suetonius,  "  The 
Twelve  Caesars,"  under  "Nero." 

Note  Q,  page  48. 

Renan,  ut  supra,  "Les  Apotres,"  etc.,  pp.  224  et  sea. 
Even  Renan  confesses  here  the  beautiful  fruits  of  Christian 
civilization.  Does  he  understand  that  the  glorified  Roman 
Law  comes  out  of  it  ?  Elsewhere  I  have  said  (see  Ante- 
Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  vi.  p.  4)  as  follows  :  — 

"Justinian  calls  Berytus  'the  mother  and  nurse'  of  the 
Civil  Law.  Now  Caius,  whose  Institutes  were  discovered  in 
1820  by  the  sagacity  of  Niebuhr,  seems  to  have  been  a  Syrian. 
So  were  Papinian  and  Ulpian  ;  and,  heathen  as  they  were, 
they  lived  under  the  illumination  reflected  from  Antioch, 
and,  not  less  than  the  Antonines,  they  were  examples  of  a 
philosophic  regeneration  which  never  could  have  existed 
until  the  Christian  era  had  begun  its  triumphs.  Of  this  sort 
of  pagan  philosophy  Julian  became  afterwards  the  grand 
embodiment  ;  and  in  Julian's  grudging  confessions  of  what 


308  NOTES. 

he  had  learned  from  Christianity  we  have  a  key  to  the  secret 
convictions  of  others,  such  as  I  have  named,  —  characters 
in  whom,  as  in  Plutarch  and  in  many  retrograde  unbeliev- 
ers of  our  day,  we  detect  the  operation  of  influences  they  are 
unwilling  to  acknowledge,  —  of  which,  possibly,  they  are 
blindly  unconscious  themselves.  Roman  law,  I  maintain, 
therefore,  indirectly  owes  its  origin,  as  it  is  directly  indebted 
for  its  completion  in  the  Pandects,  to  the  new  powers  and 
processes  of  thought  which  came  from  'the  Light  of  the 
World.'  It  was  light  from  Galilee  and  Golgotha,  answering 
Pilate's  question  in  the  inward  convictions  of  many  a  heathen 
sage." 

Note  R,  page  53. 
See   "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  Am.  edition,  vol.  i.  p.  45. 
Compare  Lightfoot's  "  Apostolic  Fathers,"  vol.  ii.  sect,  ii., 
passim. 

Note  S,  page  58. 
The  moth  is  the  enemy  of  the  bee,  and,  strange  to  say,  a 
very   formidable   one.      On    Pantaenus,    see    "  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,"  vol.  ii.  p.  165,  and  vol.  viii.  p.  776. 

Note  T,  page  59. 
See  Fiske's  "Idea  of  God,"  3d  edition,  1886,  ut  supra  ; 
and  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  vi.  p.  303.  I  am  sorry 
that  Mr.  Fiske  speaks  (p.  97)  of  "the  mischief  wrought 
by  the  Augustinian  conception  of  Deity."  It  is  essentially 
that  of  Athanasius. 

Note  U,  page  61. 
See  "Ante-Nicene    Fathers,"  vol.  vi.  p.  495;   and  Cole- 
ridge's strictures,  "  Notes  on  English  Divines,"  vol.  i.  p.  266, 
ed.  London,   1853. 

Note  V,  page  62. 
Professor  Allen  of  Cambridge  seems  to  have  prompted 
John  Fiske  to  such  ideas,  in  his  "  Continuity  of  Christian 
Thought,"  a  "  suggestive  work,"  indeed,  but  terribly  involved 
as  to  the  Unity  of  Christian  Thought,  which  is  essential  to 
its  "  Continuity." 


NOTES.  309 

Note  W,  page  64. 
I  have  endeavoured  to  bring  this  out  clearly,  to  the  great 
credit  of  the  Church  in  Rome  at  this  early  period,  in  several 
volumes  of  the  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers."   See  vol.  ii.  p.  3,  and 
vol.  viii.  p.  765.     The  Catacombs  confirm  such  evidences. 

Note  X,  page  64. 
See  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  i.  p.  309. 

Note  Y,  page  66. 
See  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  ni.  p.  4.     Also,  Stanley, 
"Eastern  Church,"  Lect.  V.,  p.  184. 

Note  Z,  page  68. 
The  suburbicarian  district  is  explained  in  "Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,"  vol.  v.  p.  156,  and  its  nature  and  relations  to  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  are  illustrated  in  the  succeeding  pages  to 
page  162.     Note  also  Ibid.,  pp.  409-420,  and  p.  557. 

Note  A',  page  68. 
See  Hippolytus,  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  iii.  p.  3,  Am. 
ed.  For  those  who  have  no  access  to  this  edition  of  the 
Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  let  me  note  that  the  statue  of  Hip- 
polytus was  discovered  in  the  progress  of  excavations  at 
Rome  in  155 1,  and  was  seated  in  the  Vatican  just  when 
the  new  creed  of  Pius  IV.  was  promulgated.  He  was 
greatly  glorified  as  a  saint,  at  Rome,  till  his  works  were  dis- 
covered on  Mt.  Athos,  in  1842.  In  1851,  when  their  authen- 
ticity and  genuineness  were  established,  I  saw  the  statue  in 
the  Vatican.  But,  just  then,  Providence  seems  to  have 
warned  Pius  IX.  not  to  make  a  new  dogma,  as,  three  hundred 
years  before,  the  unearthing  of  the  statue  seems  to  have 
warned  Pius  IV.  not  to  make  a  new  creed.  For  Hippolytus 
proves  that  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus,  two  early  Bishops  of 
Rome,  were  not  only  basely  immoral,  but  rank  heretics, 
whom  he  and  his  co-bishops  barely  saved  from  delivering 
over  the  See  of  Rome  to  heresy  at  this  early  date.  In 
the  face  of  this  warning,  Pius  IX.  declared  all  the  Roman 
bishops,  from  the  beginning,  to  have  been,  like  himself, 
"Infallible." 


3IO  NOTES. 

Note  B',  page  72. 
See  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  295-298.  The 
early  martyrs  were  "multitudes,"  says  Tertullian.  Can  it 
be  possible  that  he  would  use  such  language  to  the  magis- 
trates, if  he  knew  that  such  instances  were  of  rare  occur- 
rence? The  disposition  of  our  times  to  minimize  the  per- 
secutions of  our  Christian  forefathers  calls  upon  us  to  note 
such  references,  all  the  more  important  because  occurring 
obiter,  and  mentioned  as  notorious.  Note  also  the  closing 
chapter  of  his  Apology,  and  reference  to  the  outcries  of  the 
populace,  in  cap.  xxxv.  See  admirable  remarks  on  the 
benefits  derived  by  the  Church  from  the  sufferings  of  Chris- 
tian martyrs,  with  direct  reference  to  Tertullian,  in  Words- 
worth, Church  History  to  Council  of  Nicasa,  cap.  xxiv.  p.  374. 

Note  C,  page  75. 
Compare  Bossuet  on  Psalm  ii.  10,  Et  mine  reges  :  "  II  les 
a  done  appelds  non  poiiit  par  neeessite',  mais  par  grace." 
Opp.,  vol.  iii.  p.  83,  ed.  Paris,  1845. 

Note  D',  page  78. 
See  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  viii.  p.  3,  where  I  note 
the  absence  of  exultation  on  the  conversion  of  the  Emperor. 

Note  E',  page  79. 
Concerning  the  celibate,  I  have  elsewhere  noted,  "  Ante- 
Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  iv.  p.  115,  a  remarkable  admission 
from  an  unexpected  quarter,  —  an  admission  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  a  pure  asceticism,  like  that  of  the  early  anchorets, 
lies  deep  in  our  nature,  as  human.  Thus  speaks  Professor 
J.  P.  Cooke,  of  Harvard  :  "//  is  well  to  go  away  at  times, 
tliat  we  may  see  another  aspect  of  human  life  which  still 
survives  in  the  East,  and  to  feel  that  influence  which  led  even 
the  Christ  into  the  wilderness  to  prepare  for  the  struggle 
with  the  animal  nature  of  man.  We  need  something  of  the 
experience  of  the  anchorites  of  Egypt,  to  impress  us  with 
the  great  truth  that  the  distinction  between  the  spiritual  and 
the  material  remains  broad  and  clear,  even  if  with  the  scalpel 
of  our  modern  philosophy  we  cannot  completely  dissect  the 


NOTES.  311 

two  ;  and  this  experience  will  give  us  courage  to  cherish  our 
aspirations,  keep  bright  our  hopes,  and  hold  fast  our  Chris- 
tian faith  until  the  consummation  comes."  See  his  "  Scien- 
tific Culture,"  New  York,  18S4.  Nevertheless,  marriage  has 
been  the  rule,  and  celibacy  the  exception,  in  the  Church  of 
Christ. 

St.  Peter  was  a  married  apostle,  and  the  traditions  of  his 
wife,  which  connect  her  married  life  with  Rome  itself,  render 
it  most  surprising  that  those  who  claim  to  be  St.  Peter's  suc- 
cessors should  denounce  the  marriage  of  the  clergy.  Her 
touching  story,  borrowed  from  Clement  of  Alexandria,  is  re- 
lated by  Eusebius.  "  And  will  they,"  says  Clement,  "  reject 
even  the  apostles  ?  Peter  and  Philip,  indeed,  had  children  ; 
Philip  also  gave  his  daughters  in  marriage  to  husbands; 
and  Paul  does  not  demur,  in  a  certain  Epistle,  to  mention  his 
own  wife,  whom,  in  order  to  expedite  his  ministry  the  better, 
he  did  not  take  about  with  him."  Of  St.  Peter  and  his  wife, 
Eusebius  subjoins,  "  Such  was  the  marriage  of  these  blessed 
ones,  and  such  was  their  perfect  affection." 

The  Easterns  to  this  day  perpetuate  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy,  and  enjoin  it ;  but  unmarried  men  only  are  chosen 
to  be  bishops.  Even  Rome  relaxes  her  discipline  for  the 
Uniats,  and  hundreds  of  her  priesthood,  therefore,  live  in 
honourable  marriage.  Thousands  live  in  secret  marriage,  but 
their  wives  are  dishonoured  as  "  concubines,"  and  unchaste 
living  is  all  but  universal.  It  was  not  till  the  twelfth  century 
that  the  celibate  was  enforced.  In  England  it  was  never 
successfully  imposed  ;  and,  though  the  "  priest's  leman " 
was  not  called  his  wife,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem, she  was  yet  honoured  (see  Chaucer),  and  often  car- 
ried herself  too  proudly.  See  "  Notes  and  Queries,"  vol.  i. 
pp.  147,  14S. 

The  enormous  evils  of  an  enforced  celibacy  need  not  here 
be  remarked  upon.  The  history  of  "  Sacerdotal  Celibacy," 
by  Henry  C.  Lea,  of  Philadelphia,  (Boston,  Houghton,  Mif- 
flin, &  Co.,  2d  edition,  enlarged,  IS84,)  is  compendious,  and 
can  be  readily  procured.  We  must  not  be  wiser  than  God, 
even  in  our  zeal  for  His  service. 


312  NOTES. 

Note  F',  page  79. 

A  paragraph,  good  so  far  as  it  goes,  in  Stanley's  "  East- 
ern Church,"  page  230,  closes  with  a  most  pregnant  sen- 
tence, thus:  "Undoubtedly,  if  Constantine  is  to  be  judged 
by  the  place  which  he  occupies  among  the  benefactors 
of  mankind,  he  would  rank,  not  among  the  secondary  char- 
acters of  history,  but  among  the  very  first."  The  same 
remark  applies  to  Charlemagne,  though  less  strikingly,  all 
things  considered.  Compare  Dollinger,  "  Reunion,"  etc., 
p.  24,  and  Stanley,  ut  supra,  p.  249.  For  the  humanity  of 
the  new  system,  see  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  v.  p.  563, 
Elucidation  xii.  From  my  own  remarks  in  that  series,  I 
cite  as  follows  :  — 

"Clement  was  able  to  remind  the  heathen,  in  Nero's  time, 
that  Christ  had  '■already  made  the  universe  an  ocean  of 
blessings.'  The  moral  canons  of  Christianity  reflecting  the 
Light  of  the  World  operated  practically.  The  first  Chris- 
tian hospital  was  founded  (a.d.  350)  by  Ephraem  Syrus. 
His  example  was  followed  by  St.  Basil,  who  also  founded 
another  for  lepers.  The  founding  of  hostels  as  refuges  for 
travellers  was  an  institution  of  the  Nicene  period.  '  In  the 
time  of  Chrysostom,'  says  Lecky,  not  too  well  disposed 
towards  the  Gospel,  '  the  church  of  Antioch  supported  three 
thousand  widows  and  virgins,  besides  strangers  and  sick. 
Legacies  for  the  poor  became  common  ;  and  it  was  not  infre- 
quent for  men  and  women  who  desired  to  live  a  life  of  espe- 
cial sanctity,  and  especially  for  priests  who  attained  the 
episcopacy,  as  a  first  act,  to  bestow  their  properties  in 
charity.  A  Christian,  it  was  maintained,  should  devote  at 
least  one  tenth  of  his  profits  to  the  poor.  A  priest  named 
Thalasius  collected  blind  beggars  in  an  asylum  on  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates.  A  merchant  named  Apollinus  founded  on 
Mount  Nitria  a  gratuitous  dispensary.' 

"  So  Cyprian's  canons,  in  days  of  persecution,  in  lieu  of 
revenge  and  retaliation,  enforce  (1)  works  of  mercy ;  (2)  alms- 
deeds  ;  (3)  brotherly  love;  (4)  mutual  support;  (5)  forgive- 
ness of  injuries;  (6)  the  example  of  Christ's  holy  living; 
(7)  forbearance ;  (8)  suppression  of  idle  talk ;  (9)  love  of  ene- 
mies ;  (10)  abhorrence  of  usury,  (11)  of  avarice,  (12)  and  of 


NOTES.  313 

carnal  impurity:  also,  (13)  obedience  to  parents  ;  (14)  paren- 
tal love;  (15)  consideration  of  servants;  (16)  respect  for 
the  aged;  (17)  moderation,  even  in  use  of  things  lawful  ; 
(18)  control  of  the  tongue  ;  (19)  abstinence  from  detraction; 
(20)  to  visit  the  sick;  (21)  care  of  widows  and  orphans; 
(22)  not  to  flatter;  (23)  to  practise  the  Golden  Rule  ;  and 
{z\)  to  abstain  from  bloodshed.  In  short,  we  have  here  the 
outgrowth  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  of  St.  Paul's 
epitome,  '  Whatsoever  things  are  true,'  "  etc. 

Note  G',  page  84. 
See  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  i.  p.  52,  and  vol.  v.  p.  41 1, 
Elucid.  iv.  Consult  Balmes,  "  Le  Protestantisme  compare','' 
etc..  cap.  xiv.  p.  171,  ed.  Paris,  1851.  This  author,  a 
Jesuit,  takes  to  the  credit  of  modern  Roman  Catholics  all  the 
good  done  to  the  world  by  primitive  Christians. 

Note  H',  page  85. 
See   Cyprian,   passim,    in   his    Epistles,    "Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,"    vol.    v.,   and  my   Introduction,  page   263.     Also, 
Ep.  xi.  p.  292. 

Note  I',  page  85. 
Stanley  is  a  thorough  Erastian,  yet  we  may  well  consult 
his   view    of  the   growth    of  the    Imperial   influence.      See 
"  Eastern  Church,"  p.  230,  and  elsewhere. 

Note  J',  page  87. 
De  Maistre  is  a  fanatical  assailant  of  Gallicanism  in  all 
its  phases,  but  most  instructive  are  his  admissions  as  to 
the  essential  identity  of  the  Regale,  as  conceded  to  France 
by  all  the  Popes,  and  denied  to  England  at  the  Restoration. 
Henry  VIII.  in  A.  D.  1 551  went  no  farther  than  Louis  XIV. 
in  A.  D.  16S2  ;  that  is,  the  English  Convocation  was  excom- 
municated under  Henry  for  what  was  done  with  entire  una- 
nimity by  the  French  bisho-ps  under  the  lead  of  Bossuet. 
See  De  Maistre,  Opp.,  vol.  iv.  p.  326,  and  the  entire  treatise 
"  De  l'Eglise  Gallicane." 


314  NOTES. 

Note  K',  page  91. 
Stanley,  ut  supra,  Lect.  IV.  p.  140. 

Note  U,  page  91. 
"  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  v.  p.  413,  Elucid.  x.,  and  the 
"Treatise  on  Unity," passim,  but  specially  see  Elucidations, 
p.  557  et  seq.  As  to  ecclesiastical  regimen,  based  on  the 
co-equality  of  bishops,  and  their  consent  to  the  priority  of 
certain  brethren  for  the  sake  of  order  and  convenience, 
note  that  in  the  time  of  Constantine  the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern Empires  were  each  divided  into  seven  districts,  called 
dioceses,  which  comprised  about  one  hundred  and  eighteen 
provinces.  Each  province  contained  several  cities,  with  a 
district  attached  to  it.  The  ecclesiastical  rulers  of  the  dio- 
ceses were  called  patriarchs,  exarchs,  or  archbishops,  of  whom 
there  were  fourteen  ;  the  rulers  of  the  provinces  were  styled 
metropolitans,  i.  e.  governors  of  the  firjTpoTTokis  or  mother 
city,  and  those  of  each  city  and  its  districts  were  simply 
known  as  bishops.  So  that  the  division  which  we  now  call 
a  diocese  was  in  ancient  times  a  union  of  dioceses,  and  a 
parish  was  a  combination  of  modern  parishes. 

Note  M',  page  93. 

See  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  vi.  pp.  v.  and  vi.,  pref- 
atory. Also,  Stanley,  ut  supra,  Lect.  III.  p.  113.  "The 
Bishop  of  Alexandria,"  says  this  author,  "  was  known  by  a 
title  which  he  alone  bore  in  that  assembly  (Nicasa).  He 
was  the  Pope.  The  '  Pope  of  Rome  '  was  a  phrase  which 
had  not  yet  emerged  in  history,  but  the  '  Pope  of  Alexan- 
dria '  was  a  well-known  dignity."  Why  then  stultify  history 
by  calling  the  early  Bishops  of  Rome  Popes  ? 

That  the  theology  of  the  great  school  of  Alexandria  had  a 
character  of  its  own  is  most  apparent ;  I  should  be  the  last 
to  deny  it.  As  its  succession  of  teachers  was  like  that  of  he- 
reditary descent  in  a  family,  a  family  likeness  is  naturally  to 
be  found  in  the  school,  from  the  great  Clement  to  the  great 
Athanasius.  It  is  a  school  that  hands  on  the  traditions  in 
which  Apollos  had  been  reared  ;  it  not  less  reflects  the  Greek 
influences  always  dominant  in  the  capital  of  the  Macedonian 


NOTES.  315 

hero ;  but  it  is  a  school  in  which  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  the 
Light  of  the  World  was  always  made  predominant ;  and, 
while  a  most  liberal  view  of  human  knowledge  was  incul- 
cated in  it,  yet  the  faith  was  always  exalted  as  the  mother 
and  mistress  of  the  true  gnosis  and  of  all  science.  The  wise 
men  of  this  world  were  summoned  with  an  imperial  voice, 
from  this  eldest  seat  and  centre  of  Christian  learning,  to  cast 
their  crowns  and  their  treasures  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  With 
a  generous  patronage  Clement  conceded  all  he  could  to  the 
philosophy  of  the  Greeks,  and  yet  sublimely  rose  above  it  to  a 
sphere  it  never  discovered,  and  looked  down  upon  all  merely 
human  intellect  and  its  achievements  like  Uriel  in  the  sun. 

It  was  the  special,  though  unconscious,  mission  of  this 
school  to  prepare  the  way,  and  to  shape  the  thought  of 
Christendom,  for  the  great  epoch  of  the  (nominal)  conversion 
of  the  Empire,  and  for  the  all-important  synodical  period, 
its  logical  consequence.  It  was  in  this  school  that  the  tech- 
nical formulas  of  the  Church  were  naturally  wrought  out. 
The  process  was  like  that  of  the  artist  who  has  first  to  make 
his  own  tools.  He  does  many  things,  and  resorts  to  many 
contrivances,  never  afterwards  necessary  when  once  the 
tools  are  complete,  and  his  laboratory  furnished  with  all  he 
wants  for  his  work.  See  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  vi. 
PP-  257,  3°3- 

Note  N',  page  96. 

Under  the  Cypriote  privilege,  the  Church  of  England 
maintained  her  autonomy  till  the  time  of  Henry  II.,  and 
never  lost  it,  altogether,  under  the  succeeding  reigns.  After 
about  four  hundred  years  of  usurpation,  the  Cypriote  Canon 
took  lasting  effect  again  under  Henry  VIII.  By  this  canon, 
the  eighth  of  Ephesus,  all  insular  churches  are  exempt  from 
jurisdiction  of  the  Patriarchates.  And,  apart  from  this,  the 
second  Canon  of  Constantinople  ordains  that  "churches 
among  barbarians  must  be  governed  according  to  the  cus- 
toms prevalent  with  their  ancestors."  This  meets  the  case 
of  the  Church  of  England  even  in  the  days  of  Theodore  of 
Tarsus,  its  second  founder.  So  also  Canon  XXVIII.  of 
Chalcedon. 


316  NOTES. 

Note  O',  page  97. 
The  Nicene  Creed,  so  called,  ends  abruptly,  and  is  closed 
by  the  anathema,  its  enacting  clause,  which  is  therefore  not 
recited  as  part  thereof.  Obviously,  however,  it  was  not  to 
stop  here,  liturgically,  when  recited  in  the  public  worship  of 
the  Church ;  but  it  was  allowed  to  conclude  as  we  still  use 
in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  or  in  the  Creed  of  Jerusalem.  The 
Council  of  Constantinople  added  the  Jerusalem  formula, 
slightly  varied,  and  made  it  the  orthodox  confession  touch- 
ing the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Church,  etc.  See  Stanley's  "  East- 
ern Church,"  Lect.  II.  pp.  71-74  i  and  the  whole  subject,  in 
"Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  vii.  p.  524. 

Note  P',  page  103. 
See  Note  K',  supra,  p.  91.  Dean  Stanley  infers  that  what 
was  thus  done  to  honour  the  Scriptures  in  later  councils 
was  based  on  the  example  of  Nicaea.  But  though  this  is  a 
reasonable  inference,  and  among  Easterns  especially,  I  do 
not  find  the  recorded  statement.  See  Stanley,  "  Eastern 
Church,"  p.  140,  with  his  references. 

Note  0>,  page  108. 

The  Liber  Dinrnus  obliges  every  Pope  to  anathematize 
(his  predecessor)  Honorius  as  a  heretic.  See  Dollinger, 
"Popes  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  p.  229,  ed.  1871;  "The 
Church  and  the  Bishops,"  by  H.  St.  A.  von  Liano,  Lon- 
don, Rivingtons,  1870. 

Note  R',  page  120. 

Alcuin,  Opp.,  vol.  i.  p.  52,  Epist.  xxxviii.,  ed.  Ratisbon, 
1777.  This  edition  omits  the  "  Caroline  Books,"  on  advice 
from  Rome. 

Note  S',  page  121. 
Dupin  does  not  decide  the  question  as  to  the  authorship 
of  the  "  Caroline  Books,"  but  suggests  no  other  name  with 
equal  probabilities  in  its  favour. 

Note  T',  page  130. 
Voltaire  exults  in   details  of  his   ferocity,  but  Bossuet's 


NOTES.  317 

eulogy  is  extravagant,  and  makes   him   a   saint.     He  was 
canonized  by  the  Antipope  Paschal  II.,  A.  D.   1165. 

Note  V,  page  134. 
The  Guclphs  and  Ghibellines  were  also  known  as  the 
Bianchi  and  Neri.  The  readers  of  Dante  are  familiar  with 
these  names,  which  represent  the  Welfen  and  Waiblingen  of 
Germany,  in  Tramontane  forms  of  the  South.  See  a  strange 
account  of  them  in  the  work  of  Aroux,  a  French  Ultra- 
montanist,  entitled,  "  Dante,  HeVetique,  Rdvolutionnaire  et 
Socialiste,"  Paris,  1854.  The  Guelphs  were  the  Pontifical 
party,  and  their  antagonists  were  Imperialists,  among  whom 
Dante  is  chief. 

Note  V,  page  137. 
See  Littledale,  ut  supra,  pp.  120  et  sea.  I  refer  frequently 
to  this  valuable  manual,  because  it  may  be  had  at  petty  cost 
in  the  form  of  a  tract  of  the  London  S.  P.  C.  K.  It  con- 
denses much  material  and  gives  useful  references.  Every 
student  should  possess  it,  as  an  index  to  reading  on  this 

subject. 

Note  W,  page  137. 

Many  of  his  expressions  may  be  found  in  Littledale, 
ut  supra,  pp.  176,  177.  Also,  S.  Gregor.  Epist.,  Lib.  V. 
Ep.  xviii.,  Paris,  1849. 

Note  X',  page  140. 
Thus  Charlemagne  summoned  a  council  meant  to  be 
oecumenical  in  effect.  He  overruled  Adrian  and  humbled 
Leo.  I  am  pleased  with  the  terse  remarks  of  Goethe  on 
this  period,  in  a  letter  to  Zelter  (Sept.  8,  1S28):  "As  soon 
as  Charles  Martel  appeared,  the  chaos  which  had  enveloped 
Gaul  and  the  rest  of  the  world  disappeared.  Happily  Pepin 
and  Charlemagne  follow,  but  then  again  a  long  period  of 
chaos."  See  "  Letters  to  Zelter,"  p.  333,  ed.  Coleridge,  Lon- 
don, 1887. 

Note  Y',  page  143. 
It  is  all-important  to  bear  in  mind  the  unquestioning  sub- 
mission of  the  West  to  the  Canon   Law,  with  which  Gratian 


3 18  NOTES. 

identified  these  forgeries.  They  knew  no  better.  Since 
their  exposure,  however,  they  have  been  adopted  and  re- 
enacted,  and  made  the  framework  of  the  modern  "  Roman 
Catholic  Church."  This  is  shown  in  the  letter  of  Edward 
Ffoulkes  to  Cardinal  Manning,  heretofore  quoted. 

Note  Z',  page  146. 

The  valuable  work  of  Dr.  Maitland  was  a  reprint  from  the 
"British  Magazine,"  edited  by  the  estimable  Hugh  James 
Rose.  The  third  edition  appeared  in  1S53,  and  I  think 
several  have  appeared  since.  It  gave  a  great  impulse  to 
the  Oxford  movement,  but  was  unfortunate  in  its  second- 
ary effects,  which  were  reactionary  and  extravagant. 

Note  A",  page  147. 

"The  Fall  of  Constantinople,"  etc.,  by  Edwin  Pears,  etc., 
New  York,  1886.  See  page  4.  This  is  a  work  on  the  Latin 
Conquest ;  not  the  final  fall  of  the  Christian  metropolis,  in 
A.  D.  1453.  On  this  subject,  I  cannot  forbear  to  quote  the 
forcible  words  of  Mr.  Ffoulkes  in  his  letter  to  Cardinal 
Manning:  "  It  has  often  been  set  to  the  credit  of  the  Popes, 
that  they  saved  Europe  from  the  Turks.  History  says 
that  they  opened  the  door  by  which  the  Turks  came  in.  It 
is  certain  that  the  Latins  proved  the  ruin  of  the  Greek 
Empire,  much  more  than  the  Turks.  Had  the  Greek  Em- 
pire been  left  to  itself,  or  helped  honestly,  it  would  have 
barred  the  Turks  from  Europe  to  this  day,  and  preserved  all 
the  civilization,  population,  and  Christianity  contained  in  it 
for  man."  This  is  not  only  true,  but  so  very  true  that  by 
this  fact  alone  the  Paparchy,  convicted  of  a  war  upon  Chris- 
tendom in  the  interest  of  Mohammedanism,  is  proved  an 
Antichrist. 

Note  B",  page  149. 

Littledale's  chapter  on  "  The  Wickedness  of  the  Local 
Church  of  Rome,"  ut  supra,  p.  208  et  seq.,  may  well  be 
referred  to.  And  see  Ffoulkes's  letter  to  Manning  on  this 
head  also. 


NOTES.  319 

Note  C",  page  150. 
The  history  of  Pope  Joan  is  given  with  candor  in  Bishop 
Hopkins's  "  End  of  Controversy  Controverted"  (New  York, 
1854);  but  see  also  Dollinger,  "Fables  respecting  the 
Popes  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  translated  by  Plummer,  Lon- 
don, Rivington,  1 871.  In  the  splendid  church  on  the  Su- 
perga,  near  Turin,  amid  pictures  of  the  pontiffs,  I  saw  that 
of  Pope  Joan,  in  185 r.  It  was  pointed  out  by  the  custode 
with  derision.  A  similar  memorial  in  the  cathedral  of 
Sienna  lias  been  removed.  Those  anxious  to  look  into  this 
very  curious  matter  are  also  referred  to  the  "  Esame  critico 
degli  Atti  e  Documenti  relativa  alia  Favola  della  Papessa 
Giovanna,  di  A.  Bianchi-Giovini,"  Milan,  1844.  It  was  re- 
viewed in  the  North  British  Review  for  February,   1850. 

Note  D",  page  151. 
Edgar's  speech,  as  reported,  agrees  with  authentic  docu- 
ments of  the  age  in  all  that  it  includes;  but  I  do  not  find 
it  in  William  of  Malmesbury. 

Note  E",  page  152. 
Hincmar  deserves  especial  note.    See  "  Church  of  France," 
by  Jervis,  London,  1872,  vol.  i.  pp.  32-38;  also  "Life  and 
Times  of  Hincmar,"  by  J.  C.  Prichard,  Oxford,  1849. 

Note  F",  page  153. 

De  Maistre  complains  that  Louis  XIV.  established  "la 
suprematie  anglaise  dans  toute  sa  perfection."  Why  then 
was  France  not  excommunicated,  like  England  ?  This 
author  devotes  to  this  inquiry  a  whole  chapter  of  "  L'Eglise 
Gallicane,"  p.  341,  Paris,  1853. 

Note  G",  page  154. 
Bossuet,  according  to  De  Maistre,  is  indeed  to  be  pitied. 
See  page  334  of  that  author's  "  L'Eglise  Gallicane,"  which 
impeaches  him  so  severely.     This  great  bishop  used  to  speak 
of  "  the  Romans,"  and  thus  authorizes  us  to  do  the  same. 

Note  H",  page  155. 
St.   Bernard's  words   are   these:    "  Ouis  mihi   det  ante- 


320 


NOTES. 


quam  moriar  videre  Ecclesiam  Dei,  sicut  in  diebus  antiquis  ; 
quando  apostoli  laxabant  retia,  non  in  capturam  argenti  vel 
auri,  sed  in  capturans  animarum."  Epist.  ccxxxviii.  torn.  i. 
p.  499,  ed.  Paris,  1839. 

Note  I",  page  155. 
This  golden  letter  of  St.  Bernard  to  the  Canons  of  Lyons 
may  be  found  as  above,   Epist.    clxxiv.   p.  390.     See   his 
strictures  on  the  Papacy,  (De  Consideratione,  iii.  4,)  Ibid., 
p.  1049. 

Note  J",  page  157. 
Of    Bernard's    conflict    with     Abelard,    see    Archbishop 
Trench's  "Mediaeval  Church,"  p.  210,  New  York,  1878. 

Note  K",  page  161. 
Trace  the  overflow  of  barbarians  upon  Western  Christen- 
dom in  any  map  series  like  that  of  Gage,  New  York,  1869. 
See  Trench,  ut  supra,  pp.  24,  25,  et  seq. 

Note  L",  page  162. 
Whewell,  in  his  "  Inductive  Sciences,"  makes  this  clear. 
See  vol.  i.  pp.  177,  181,  ed.  New  York,  1S58. 

Note  M",  page  165. 
The  Renaissance  is  powerfully  outlined  by  Michelet,  to 
whose  work  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer.     See  "  Histoire 
de  France  au  XVIme  Steele,"  Paris,  1855. 

Note  N",  page  166. 
See  Roscoe's  Life  of  Lorenzo,  — a  fascinating  account  of 
this  great  man's  hand  in  the  revival  of  learning,— chap.  i. 
p.  59,  London,  Bohn,  1846. 

Note  O",  page  169. 
See  Michelet,  ut  supra,  p.  83  of  his  Introduction,  on  the 
lack  of  scientific  building  in  the  pointed  architecture. 

Note  P",  page  169. 
Michelet,  ut  supra,  p.  84  of  Introduction.     Hogarth  has 
fastened    this    story    on    Columbus,  but    see   "Notes  and 
Queries,"  1856,  p.  72. 


NOTES. 


321 


Note  Q",  page  173. 
Michelet  {tit  supra,  p.  1)  has  a  brilliant  picture  of  Charles 
VIII.  and  his  invasion   of  Italy,  a.  d.  1494. 

Note  R",  page  174. 
Of  the  Council  of  Florence,  a  recent  writer,  while  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Papal  communion,  speaks  thus  forcibly  to  Car- 
dinal Manning :  "  Of  all  Councils  that  ever  were  held,  I 
suppose  there  never  was  one  in  which  hypocrisy,  duplicity, 
and  worldly  motives  played  a  more  conspicuous  or  dis- 
graceful part.  How  the  Council  of  Basle  was  outwitted, 
and  Florence  named  as  the  place  to  which  the  Greeks 
should  come  ;  how  the  galleys  of  the  Pope  outstripped  the 
galleys  of  the  Council,  and  bore  the  Greeks  in  triumph  from 
Constantinople  to  a  town  in  the  centre  of  Italy,  where  the 
Pope  was  all-powerful ;  how  they  were  treated  there ;  and 
why  they  were  subsequently  removed  to  Florence,  —  would 
reveal  a  series  of  intrigues  of  the  lowest  order,  if  I  had  space 
to  transcribe  them ;  unfortunately,  they  were  too  patent  at 
every  stage  of  the  Council  for  the  real  objects  of  its  pro- 
moters to  admit  of  the  slightest  doubt."  He  adds,  justly : 
"The  Easterns  were  trampled  upon  for  maintaining  their 
rights,  ejected  from  their  churches,  .  .  .  and  supplanted  by  a 
rival  hierarchy,  wherever  the  Crusaders  conquered." 

Note  S",  page  176. 
This  is  brilliantly  illustrated  by  Michelet,  treating  of  Angelo 
"  comme  prophete  "  (tit  supra,  pp.  210-22S).  On  the  anni- 
versary of  the  opening  of  the  Sistine  chapel,  All-Saints'  day, 
185 1,  the  work  of  Michael,  before  the  eyes  of  such  a  court, 
greatly  impressed  me,  as  I  saw  Pius  IX.  pontificate. 

Note  T",  page  1S3. 
See  Note  W,  supra,  p.  317.     See  also  Ep.  xix.  pp.  744, 
749,  and  Lib.  vii.  Ep.  xiii.  p.  891. 

Note  U",  page  199. 
Alarmed   at  the  growing   fulness   of  my   notes,    I   have 
omitted  citations  in  this  Lecture,  to  which  I  now  refer  my 
reader  in  general  terms.      My  notes  are  designed  to  hint, 

21 


322 


ATOTES. 


to  youthful  students,  the  sources  of  information  ordinarily 
to  be  found  in  college  libraries.  Consult  Soames,  "  Anglo- 
Saxon  Church,"  4th  ed.,  1S56 ;  Innett,  "History  of  the 
English  Church,"  Oxford,  1855.  Collier's  great  History  of 
the  same,  in  nine  volumes,  and  Bede's  works,  translated, 
may  be  found  even  more  readily  perhaps.  Fuller's  "  Church 
History  of  Britain  "  is  so  witty  that  young  students  find  it 
a  delightful  work  to  begin  with. 

Note  V",  page  218. 
This  is  shown  by  Michelet  in  a  frightful  note  to  his  Intro- 
duction   (p.  cxli.),  where  he  cites  his  proof  that  Innocent 
accepted  with  enthusiasm  the  whole  responsibility  for  the 
massacres  of  the  Vaudois,  etc. 

Note  W",  page  225. 
The  divorce  of  Queen  Vashti  might  almost  as  well  be  made 
the   starting-point  for  a  history  of  Henry  VIII.  as  that  of 
Queen   Katherine.      But,  the  beaten  track  is  still  plodded 
over  in  new  books,  as  well  as  in  journalism. 

Note  X",  pages  228,  247. 

There  was  no  "divorce"  of  Queen  Katherine  properly 
speaking,  because  there  was  no  marriage.  It  was  a  case  of 
incest,  licensed  by  Pope  Julius  for  money.  Yet  see  how 
Guizot  falls  into  the  ruts,  and  flippantly  gives  his  opinion 
of  the  "divorce"  against  all  the  contemporary  decisions  of 
Universities,  scholars,  and  divines,  in  the  Papal  communion 
itself.  See  his  "  History  of  France,"  vol.  iii.  p.  143.  He 
seems  to  imagine  that  Henry  could  have  acted  arbitrarily  in 
so  great  a  case,  instead  of  seeing  that  it  was  only  because 
England  was  ready  to  break  with  the  Papacy  that  he  was 
able  to  bring  it  about  on  such  slight  provocation.  The  facts 
about  the  divorce  are  admirably  stated  by  Bishop  Hopkins, 
"End  of  Controversy,"  etc.,  vol.  i.  pp.  23,  40,  197,  215,  ed. 
New  York,  1854. 

Note  Y",  page  236. 

Massillon  has  been  accused  of  sowing  the  seeds  of  rev- 
olution, but  the  age  no  doubt  regarded  his  expressions  as 


NOTES.  323 

mere  flourishes.  Yet  in  the  "  Petit  Careme  "  are  apparent 
premonitions  of  the  Reign  of  Terror.  He  says,  for  exam- 
ple, that  God  visits  upon  princes  their  accumulated  sins, 
"  extinguishes  their  families,  withers  at  the  root  the  stem 
of  their  posterity,  causes  their  titles  and  their  possessions 
to  pass  into  strange  hands,  renders  them  striking  examples 
of  the  inconstancy  of  human  affairs,  and  monuments  before- 
hand of  his  judgments  against  hearts  ungrateful  and  unfeeling, 
under  the  fatherly  care  of  His  Providence."  He  tells  them 
that  "they  owe  their  place  to  the  free  consent  of  the  peo- 
ple," and  adds,  that,  "  in  a  word,  as  the  prime  source  of  their 
authority  is  from  us,  kings  should  use  it  only  in  our  behalf." 
Such  were  the  views  in  which  the  French  Revolution  began, 
and,  however  just,  they  were  a  species  of  Lollardism  under 
Louis  XIV. 

Note  Z",  page  243. 
Concerning  "  Codes  of  Belief,"  De  Maistre  has  expatiated 
eloquently,  as  follows  :  "  If  a  people  possesses  one  of  these 
Codes  0/ Belief,  we  may  be  sure  of  this,  that  the  religion  of 
such  a  people  is  false."  This  he  says  because  he  imagines 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles  to  be  a  creed,  — a  code  required  of 
all  men  as  a  condition  of  salvation.  But  such  is  not  the 
case,  and  so  his  maxim  harms  not  us ;  but  it  is  fatal  to  the 
creed  of  his  own  communion.  For  the  Council  of  Trent 
has  set  forth  the  most  enormous  system  of  scholastic  sub- 
tleties ever  digested  into  a  Code  by  the  human  mind.  And 
all  of  this  is  professed  as  an  article  of  the  Faith  in  the 
Creed  of  Pius  the  Fourth,  as  follows:  "  I  embrace  and  re- 
ceive all  and  every  one  of  the  things  which  have  been 
defined  and  declared  in  the  Holy  Council  of  Trent.  This 
true  Catholic  Faith,  without  which  no  one  can  be  saved,  I 
do  freely  confess  and  sincerely  hold."  Here  we  have  a 
Code  of  Belief,  indeed,  such  as  De  Maistre  pronounces 
necessarily  false.  I  am  forced  to  adopt  this  conclusion. 
Not  the  Anglican,  but  the  Romanist,  puts  a  code  into  his 
creed.  And  think  what  this  code  involves,  "  without  which 
no  one  can  be  saved."  Millions  who  cannot  write  or  read 
are  forced  to  receive  even  its  infinitesimal  definitions,  some 
of  which  not  even  the  wisest  men  can  understand. 


324 


NOTES. 


Note  A'",  page  250. 
This  quotation  is  from  Mr.  Pugin.  My  readers  may  be 
glad  to  know  that  it  is  accessible,  with  much  more  from  the 
same  source,  in  an  invaluable  periodical,  sustained  so  many 
years  by  that  noblest  layman  of  the  American  Church,  the 
late  Hugh  Davy  Evans,  LL.  D.,  of  Baltimore.  See  his 
"True  Catholic,"  vol.  ix.  pp.  212,  265.  It  was  originally 
published  in  London,  by  Dolman,  in  185 1,  as  an  "Earnest 
Address,  etc.,  by  A.  Welby  Pugin,  Esq." 

Note  B'",  page  252. 

Of  the  mass  at  Notre  Dame,  it  is  enough  to  say  that 
Francis  understood  from  his  Gallican  standpoint  what  More 
and  Fisher  should  have  understood  as  well  from  ours. 
Guizot  and  other  French  and  German  Protestants  always, 
from  theirs,  fail  to  comprehend  the  case.  It  is  therefore 
noteworthy,  when  I  find  in  the  "  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  " 
so  true  and  clear  a  statement  as  the  following:  "  L'Eglise 
Anglicane  n'a  donne  au  Cesar  que  cela  que  lui  appartient; 
la  meme  autorite  que  tenait  l'Empereur  aux  jours  de  Gregoire 
I.,  le  meme,  en  effet,  que  l'Eglise  Gallicane  a  si  souvent  re- 
clame pour  ses  rois  des  les  jours  de  St.  Louis.  Avec  la  revo- 
lution de  Luther,  Sa  reformation  iia  de  cotnmun  qiCun  eclat 
contemporain.  Le  flot  du  Continent  vient  battre  les  rochers 
de  son  isolement,  mais  sans  entrer  dans  la  place  ;  et  dela 
naquit  le  '  Dissent,'  qui  est  le  veritable  protestanlisme  de 
l'Angleterre." 

Note  C",  page  252. 

It  is  surprising  that  such  an  act,  by  a  person  in  deacon 's 
orders  only,  has  not  excited  more  remark  on  the  gross  ideas 
about  absolution  prevailing  in  the  Roman  Court.  The  dea- 
con's functions  are  "  non-sacerdotal  "  ;  yet,  when  put  into 
the  College  of  Cardinals  and  made  a  legate,  the  bishops 
and  all  orders  of  a  nation  kneel  before  him  for  sacramental 
absolution.     The  Marian  schism  exhibits  nothing  Catholic. 

Note  D"',  page  253. 
The  impertinence    of  quoting   this  shameful  act   against 
Calvin,    as  if  it  balanced  the   sweeping  off  of  nations  by 


NOTES.  325 

Innocent  III.  and  the  wholesale  blood-shedding  of  Alva, 
ought  to  be  apparent  to  common  sense.  Yet,  under  colour  of 
the  false  liberality  of  our  times,  how  constantly  we  find  jour- 
nalists and  others  remarking  that,  if  Rome  persecuted,  so 
did  the  Calvinists  and  others.  In  a  few  detestable  instances, 
such  facts,  it  is  true,  disgrace  the  Reformation,  and  our 
Restoration  also.  But  (1)  they  were  exceptional  and  not 
systematic  ;  (2)  they  were  the  lingering  results  of  cruel  laws, 
which  we  owe  to  the  pontiffs  and  to  the  kings  who  sustained 
their  persecutions ;  (3)  and  they  have  been  repented  of, 
abjured,  and  abhorred  universally.  13 ut  the  Roman  perse- 
cutions were  as  vast  as  those  of  the  Caliphs  ;  were  accepted 
and  glorified  as  triumphs  of  the  Church  ;  and  they  have 
never  been  disclaimed,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  justified  to 
this  day,  and  the  right  to  renew  them  is  asserted  by  modern 

pontiffs. 

Note  E'",  page  255. 

Concerning  Linus  and  Gladys,  see  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers," 

vol.  iii.  Elucid.  ii.  p.  108,  and  the  references  there :  also,  viii. 

p.  641;  and,  for  a  very  interesting  summary,  Lewin's  "  Life  of 

St.  Paul,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  394~397- 

Note  F"',  page  260. 
See  Faher's  masterly  treatise  on  the  "Primitive  Doctrine 
of  Election,"  New  York,  1S40.  For  popular  instruction 
touching  the  Scholastics,  see  "  Mediaeval  Church  History," 
by  Archbishop  Trench,  p.  200;  also,  for  Nominalism  and 
Realism,  pp.  268,  328,  ed.  New  York,  1878. 

Note  G'",  page  261. 
In  his  Third  Lecture  before  students  of  the  College  of 
France,  Ouinet  (a  friend  and  colleague  of  Michelet)  treats 
of  "  The  Roman  Church  and  the  State  ";  elsewhere  of  "The 
Roman  Church  and  Science,"  of  the  same  "and  Law,"  etc. 
The  whole  course  of  Lectures  is  vigorous  and  suggestive, 
and,  coming  from  a  person  familiar  with  French  history  in 
its  relations  with  the  Popes,  a  man  of  the  world  and  not  a 
theologian,  the  work  is  worth  studying  just  now,  when  the 
conflict  with  Ultramontanism  is  beginning  in  our  Republic. 
An  English  translation  of  the  Lectures  was  published  in 


326  NOTES. 

London  in  1845,  under  the  title  of  "  Ultratnontanism,  or  the 
Roman  Church  and  Modern  Society"  (John  Chapman,  Pub- 
lisher). It  is  all  the  more  valuable,  as  showing  where  things 
stood  in  Europe  just  before  the  accession  of  Pius  IX. 

Note  H'",  page  263. 
The  Schoolmen,  writing  down  the  bishops  to  write  up  the 
Pope,  (see  Aquinas,  Opp.,  torn.  iv.  p.  1055  et  seq.,  ed.  Migne, 
and  Peter  Lombard,  torn.  i.  p.  394,)  seized  upon  some  pas- 
sionate expressions  of  Jerome,  which  appear  to  have  been 
copied  by  Augustine,  and  theorized,  against  all  antiquity, 
that  the  Episcopate,  though  an  order  in  the  hierarchy,  was 
not  of  itself  one  of  the  Holy  Orders.  The  bishop  was  only  a 
presbyter  acting  in  a  given  place  as  a  vicar  of  the  one  Uni- 
versal Bishop  at  Rome.  Calvin,  educated  in  Scholasticism, 
shared  this  view,  and  accordingly,  in  rejecting  the  Papacy, 
he  supposed  the  Episcopate  must  go  with  it.  Yet  he  deeply 
felt  the  value  of  the  pritnitive  Episcopacy,  and  professed 
himself  in  favour  of  it,  if  only  it  might  be  had.  See  his 
Institutes,  Opp.,  vol.  viii.,  ed.  Amstelod.,  1667,  p.  60. 

Note  I'",  page  281. 
When  King  Charles  demanded  a  private  interview  with 
his  judges  in  the  Painted  Chamber,  he  said,  "  The  child  which 
is  unborn  may  repent  it,"  i.  e.  a  refusal  of  his  request  and 
a  hasty  judgment.  (King  Charles's  Works,  p.  417,  London, 
1735.)  His  appeal  so  touched  the  court,  that,  but  for  the 
browbeating  of  Cromwell,  a  motion  would  have  been  made 
to  allow  what  was  asked.  Think,  then,  of  all  that  followed 
in  1660,  in  1688,  and  down  to  171 5  and  1745,  in  fulfilment  of 
the  prophecy.  But  let  nobody  suppose  that  the  disinheriting 
of  his  unworthy  son  James  II.  would  have  been  regretted  by 
the  King.  He  made  it  a  condition  of  his  blessing  to  his  chil- 
dren, that  they  should  "  perform  all  duty  and  obedience  to 
their  Mother,  .  .  .  and  to  obey  the  Queen  in  all  things,  ex- 
cept  in  matter  of  religion,"  commanding  the  Princess  Eliza- 
beth particularly,  in  that  particular,  "  upon  his  blessing,  never 
to  hearken  or  consent  to  her,  but  to  continue  firm  in  the 
religion  she  had  been  instructed  and  educated  in,  what  dis- 
countenance and  ruin  soever  might  befall  the  poor  Church 


NOTES.  327 

under  so  severe  persecution."  See  Lord  Clarendon's  "  His- 
tory of  the  Rebellion,"  book  x.  p.  68,  and  book  xi.  p.  230,  ed. 
Oxford,  1707.  He  thus  withdrew  his  blessing  from  his 
posterity  in  case  they  should  lapse ;  and  his  charge  to  his 
son  and  successor  was  the  same,  in  his  last  letter  to  him 
from  Newport,  November  25,  164S.  It  was  reserved  for 
James  to  forfeit  this  blessing,  and  to  reap  the  penalty.  This 
last  of  the  Stuart  kings  seems  to  have  been  a  reproduction 
of  King  John. 

Note  J'",  page  283. 

"  She  is  most  precious  ;  for,  like  a  chemical  medium,  she 
possesses  the  power  of  harmonizing  natures  otherwise  inca- 
pable of  union.  On  the  one  hand,  she  reaches  to  the  Protes- 
tant ;  on  the  other,  the  Roman  Catholic."  (See  De  Maistre, 
Opp.,  vol.  i.  p.  27.) 

In  amplifying  this  thought,  I  have  elsewhere  expressed 
myself  as  follows:  "Her  charity,  indeed,  is  made  her  re- 
proach ;  but  she  follows  apostolic  example  in  this,  as  in 
other  things.  She  dictates  the  creeds,  she  prescribes  a 
Scriptural  liturgy.  This  she  must  preserve,  as  they  have 
come  down  to  her  as  an  inheritance  from  the  purest  ages  of 
the  Gospel ;  but  she  refuses  to  make  more  narrow  the  old 
Catholic  way  of  salvation.  She  dares  to  say,  and  none  but 
a  Catholic  Church  can  say  so  much,  'Let  us,  therefore,  as 
many  as  be  perfect,  be  thus  minded,  and  if  in  anything  ye 
be  otherwise  minded,  God  shall  reveal  even  this  unto  you ; 
nevertheless,  wherein  we  have  already  attained,  let  us  walk 
by  the  same  rule,  let  us  mind  the  same  thing.'  Thank  God, 
this  was  the  spirit  of  her  Reformation.  In  a  scholastic 
age  she  was  reproached  by  the  Calvinists  on  one  side,  and 
the  Romanists  on  the  other,  because  she  utterly  refused  to 
erect  a  Code  of  Belief,  as  they  did,  or  to  split  metaphysical 
hairs  and  bind  humanity,  like  the  giant  in  the  fable,  by 
Liliputian  webs,  a  bond  slave  to  scholastic  subtleties.  This 
is  the  sect  spirit ;  the  Catholic  spirit  has  nothing  of  it." 
From  a  sermon  preached  in  Montreal. 

Note  K'",  page  291. 
The  work  of  Ranke  gives  the  melancholy  evidence  of  this. 
And  the  court  of  Louis  XIV.,  in  which  atheists  were  toler- 


328  NOTES. 

ated,  but  not  the  Huguenots,  may  sufficiently  illustrate  the 
results  of  such  policy  in  the  fate  it  brought  upon  Louis  XVI. 
and  his  unhappy  people. 

Note  L'",page  294. 
A  letter  of  Lord  Macaulay's,  dated  May  23,  1857,  addressed 
to  H.  S.  Randall,  Esq.,  author  of  a  "  Life  of  Jefferson,"  was 
published  in  the  "  Southern  Literary  Messenger,"  some 
thirty  years  ago.  It  is  an  admirable  comment  of  that  vis- 
ionary man  of  genius  upon  the  maxims  with  which  he  had 
spent  his  life  in  trying  to  induce  Englishmen  to  destroy  their 
own  Constitution,  while  professing  supreme  devotion  to  its 
spirit,  its  marvellous  vitality,  and  its  vitalizing  power.  At 
this  crisis,  both  Englishmen  and  Americans  would  do  well  to 
recur  to  that  letter  for  a  moral  suited  to  the  times. 


P.  S. — Note  on  the  Temporal  Supremacy,  page  249. 

Dupin  affirms  that  the  Eveqiie  ate  dehors  may  be  called 
Head  of  the  Church,  in  a  justifiable  sense.  Dissert.  Histor., 
D.  vii.  c.  iii.  §viii.  p.  582,  ed.  Paris,  16S6.  Also,  that  in  the 
time  of  Clovis,  not  the  Pope,  but  the  King,  was  esteemed, 
"after  God,  the  head  on  earth  of  the  Church  in  his  own 
realm."  See  his  treatise  on  the  Gallican  Liberties,  p.  175, 
ed.  1609.  Noailles  ("Ambassades  en  Angleterre,"  p.  175, 
Leyden,  1763)  relates  that  Queen  Mary  the  Bloody,  after 
dropping  the  title  "  Supreme  Head,"  restwied  it  six  days  be- 
fore the  date  of  his  letter,  April  23,  1554.  On  the  other  hand, 
Queen  Elizabeth  would  not  suffer  herself  to  be  so  styled, 
whether  "in  speech  or  in  writing."  See  Bishop  Jewell,  Zu- 
rich Letters,  First  Series,  p.  33,  Cambridge,  1842. 

But  now  compare  with  this  local  and  temporal  title  (which 
Henry  VIII.  and  his  daughter  Mary  used,  but  which  has 
never  been  permitted  since  in  England)  the  title  of  "  Uni- 
versal Bishop,"  which  the  Roman  Bishop  has  presumed  to 
wear  ever  since  Gregory  I.  rejected  it,  as  Antichristian. 
What  said  Gregory  about  it  ?  He  said,  "  To  consent  in  that 
nefarious  phrase  is  nothing  else  but  to  forfeit  the  Faith." 
Epistle  xix.  p.  744,  torn,  iii.,  ed.  Paris,  1849. 


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